The ITUC-Asia Pacific strongly condemns Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine and urges the international community to take immediate action to stop this humanitarian crime.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is becoming fiercer every day.
Weapons are aimed at ordinary civilians, schools, hospitals and other non-military facilities. The bombings claimed lives, destroyed infrastructures, and displacing people from their homes. Children, the elderly, pregnant women and many other innocent people have deprived of their ordinary lives with their loved ones. It is reported that electricity, gas, and water were cut off, forcing people to cook on bonfires and drink melted snow in southeast cities. At the borders, many children cry to say goodbye to their fathers.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin ruthlessly oppresses his own people, dividing them into patriots and traitors, saying “the Russian people will simply spit traitors out on the pavement like a gnat that flew into their mouths.” As independent media have been shut down one after another and access to foreign press sites has been blocked, the people have remained unaware of the real stories the war. On the other hand, due to soaring prices and economic stagnation caused by economic sanctions on Russia by the West, their lives are getting harder every day.
War gives no benefit to anyone but the one who led it – its victims are always the ordinary people. It puts the people of the defeated country in despair and powerlessness, and makes the people of the victorious country the subject of the hatred of the defeated nation and the contempt of the international community for many years to come.
Many of us, who live in Asia and the Pacific and far from the war, feel frustrated at ourselves who cannot do anything but watch the tragedy through the media. But now, we must do what we can with whatever strength we have or methods available to us to seek an immediate stoppage of this humanitarian crime. We are all requested to speak up with our friends in workplaces and communities about the war that we see online and on TV and read in the newspaper. We call on workers, their trade unions, and the broader society to bring our voices together and urge world leaders to urgently find peaceful solutions to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and ensure that victims of the war are provided security and humanitarian assistance.
As a first step, please visit the ITUC site and sign the petition: “Support Peace, Dialogue and Democracy in Ukraine: Support Peace, Dialogue, Democracy in Ukraine - International Trade Union Confederation (ituc-csi.org).
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