The appeal is initiated by the Public Council of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Affairs and Freedom of Conscience (DESS, dess.gov.ua), DESS Expert Council on Ethnic Affairs, DESS Expert Council on Freedom of Conscience, DESS Consultative Council on Implementing the Law of Ukraine “About the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine”.
Appeal to NATO member countries and all Ukraine’s allies from Ukraine’s citizens of various ethnic and religious identities, international citizens, residing in Ukraine about Ukrainian Sky Safety, Protecting Civilian Population and Cultural Heritage of Ukraine during the Full-Scale Military Attack of the Russian Federation against Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, the Russian Federation started a full-scale military attack on Ukraine. During the 14 days of the full-scale war, the Russian army launched hundreds of air attacks in many regions of Ukraine, including by cruise missile, ballistic missile, and general-purpose bombs. The enemy shamelessly uses warfare methods and tactics prohibited by the international UN Convention On Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects.
Shelling of Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv, Kyiv, Irpin, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Bucha, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy and other places killed their peaceful inhabitants – people of various ethnic and religious identities, including children; it ruined important cultural heritage sites, caused massive destructions. On March 9, a Russian pilot purposefully bombed a maternal hospital and a clinic in the city of Mariupol. Children and their parents, who happened to be there, could be alive today if a No-Fly Zone were insured over Ukraine.
The Russian military ceased Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plants, which created unprecedently large-scale threats to lives and health of people in Europe and around the whole world.
Russian military purposefully target peaceful residential areas, clinics and maternity hospitals, daycare centres, schools and universities, churches, mosques, synagogues. Among others, an airstrike hit Kyiv Memorial to Holocaust victims – Babyn Yar. Such actions are prohibited by articles 25‒27 of the IV Hague Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land.
Ukraine’s Military Forces, National Guard, National Police, territorial defence units, volunteers, civilians belonging to various ethnic and religious communities, heroically defend our freedom, independence and Ukraine’s sovereignty. At the same time, missile and bomb attacks from air are particularly dangerous for the lives of children, women, people of senior age; they cause irreversible damage to Ukrainian cities and villages, cultural heritage sites and civilian infrastructure.
We, citizens of Ukraine, belonging to various ethnic and religious communities, citizens of other countries who live in Ukraine, call upon NATO member countries and all Ukraine’s allies to urgently take all possible measures to secure Ukrainian sky so that to protect human lives, civilian infrastructure and cultural heritage of Ukraine from mass destruction by Russian air attacks.
