Dear Research and Academic Community!

The Russian Federation has committed an insidious and completely shameful military attack on our country! In 2022, cruise missiles with cluster munitions and vacuum bombs that are banned in the civilized world are destroying residential areas, kindergartens, and hospitals in the very center of Europe! During first week of war, the number of dead civilians in Ukraine reached 2 thousand (of which at least 18 are children), and thousands are wounded. The President of the Russian Federation threatens the world with nuclear weapons, which will obviously start World War III.

The armed forces and citizens defend Ukraine to the end! The whole world gives a worthy rebuff to the aggressor through the imposition of sanctions. At the same time, we believe that in this situation the progressive world scientific community should have its say. That is why we need your support right now. In our opinion, in the 21st century and 2022, perhaps the best answer to tanks, multiple rocket launchers, and rockets is closed access to high technologies, innovations, scientific research, and information support.

Therefore, we turn to you with a big request and confidence that you will not only hear, but also do everything possible to protect Ukraine, protect Europe, and, finally, the entire democratic world from bloody authoritarian aggression - with a request:

• to block access to all scientometric databases and materials of scientific publishers for citizens and institutions of the Russian Federation and Belarus;
• to make it impossible for researchers affiliated with institutions and scientific institutions of the Russian Federation and Belarus to participate in international grant programs funded by the European Union and other partners;
• to suspend participation of researchers, students and institutions from the Russian Federation and Belarus in current international academic mobility programs;
• to boycott attempts at holding scientific events on the territory of the Russian Federation and Belarus (in particular, scientific conferences, symposiums, etc.);
• to suspend indexing of scientific materials published in the Russian Federation and Belarus in all scientometric databases;
• to prohibit citizens of the Russian Federation and Belarus from being editors/co-editors/reviewers of international publications.

The proposed restrictions should not apply to individuals and institutions that have a proven record of public condemnation of the Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine. We are sure that such decisive actions will activate the scientific community and motivate the proactive population of the Russian Federation to stop the shameful military aggression.

Yours sincerely,

The research community of Ukraine and concerned academic community of the world 

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