We are confronted by a brutal and destructive war, confronted by a military that does not hesitate from attacking defenceless civilians and children, and as one of the initiators and authors of the open letter from European scientists against the war in Ukraine [1] I reiterate our call for an end to the hostilities initiated by Russia and for the immediate removal of Russian troops from all Ukrainian territories.

Many of our parents and grandparents remember well the cruelties of war. Until a few days ago it seemed that these memories would remain just that – painful memories of a brutal past. Yet today, we are once again witnessing Europe’s descent into another major conflict. We cannot remain impartial in this situation.

We must act, and words are our only weapons!

It is also important that we support our Russian friends that are opposed to their government’s hostile invasion of Ukraine, and maintain open scientific communication with all, irrespective of their views. We should retain the hope that science can act as a bridge between peoples and cultures, and as a means for easing tensions between opposing fractions. Maintaining the international collaborative pursuit of scientific knowledge is a duty that we owe to humanity.

I appeal to all Editors-in-Chief of scientific journals and their publishers to quickly and decisively support our efforts to unite the scientific world against this conflict; to popularise the letter in which we express our opposition to the war; and to support our Ukrainian friends and colleagues.

“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” A. Einstein.

Extract from the “Open letter from European scientists against the war with Ukraine”:

We, European scientists, would like to express our deepest solidarity and support for our Ukrainian colleagues and to all Ukrainian citizens.

Our thoughts go out to all the people, including our colleagues, who are affected either directly or indirectly by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We extend to them our warmest sympathy at this difficult time. We cannot believe that common collaboration and progress has ended in war.

We continue to embrace and promote scientific collaboration across the world as a driver for peace. The bonds between European, Ukrainian and Russian scientists were very strong and they should remain strong. As scientists and scholars we wish to promote values such as dialogue, diplomacy and peace. We therefore ask the Russian government to stop the violence against Ukraine and to withdraw their troops. We hope for a peaceful resolution of this armed conflict as soon as possible.

We show our concern for, and solidarity with, the people of Ukraine and hope that they will receive the same strong and firm support from the European Union as well as from our governments (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Lev Landau and Niels Bohr at Landau’s institute, the Kharkiv Theoretical Physics School in Kharkiv, Ukraine.