A Statement from the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies
As the democratic world is watching in disbelief at the Russian army’s full-scale military assault on sovereign Ukraine, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta stands united with Ukraine and Ukrainians in these critical times.
The world is currently in the midst of the worst and greatest security crisis in Europe since World War Two. On 24 February 2022, 5:00 a.m. Kyiv time, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched a massive and ferocious invasion of Ukraine. Fatalities and other casualties are rapidly mounting as a humanitarian catastrophe of unprecedented proportion unfolds. The advantages of science and technology are being applied to destroy democracy, annihilate lives, and impose the will of an aggressor.
The military aggression against Ukraine is simultaneously an assault on democracy and the values that Ukraine embraced during its development as a sovereign state since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The authoritarian regime that Vladimir Putin has built in the Russian Federation has global ambitions and is inspired by long discredited policies that drove empires to conquer peoples and expand their territories at huge human costs. The recent speech in which Mr. Putin denied Ukraine the very right to exist contradicts the modern democratic principles the world adopted after World War II. Indeed, the invasion of Ukraine should serve as a warning to the rest of the world that Ukraine may not be the end goal, and that there may be other sovereign nations that Mr. Putin may label as historical fiction and then proceed to invade.
The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta has been closely following developments in Ukraine and especially so since the beginning of the Russian occupation of Ukrainian territories in 2014. Established in 1976, CIUS has accumulated knowledge about Ukraine and possesses globally recognized expertise in all areas related to the study of Ukraine and its relations with other nations and cultures. Our scholars have commented on past tragedies and acts of aggression in this part of the world, such as the Famine of 1932-33 (Holodomor), World War II, the Chornobyl disaster of 1986, the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and others. We have strong and long-established partnerships with colleagues in many countries, including Ukraine’s immediate neighbours to the west but also those to the north and east, in Belarus and Russia, the countries that have launched the attack on Ukraine.
CIUS strongly condemns the war that Mr. Putin has unleashed on the territory of Ukraine and expresses its deepest concern for the people of Ukraine, and for all our colleagues and partners in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, and around the world. As academics, we have the power to effectively contribute to the ongoing struggle for democracy in the world. A series of CIUS events that will address the war in Ukraine, including its current and historical contexts, is being planned. Stay connected with CIUS, follow our social media, and join us in our efforts to bring peace to Ukraine, Europe, and the globe.