"We urge the international community to support all Ukrainian efforts to investigate these crimes and ensure that the deliberate targeting of Ukrainian cultural heritage by the Russian regime is included in national accountability mechanisms as well as the international commission of inquiry for Ukraine."
This statement was originally published on pen.org on 24 February 2023.
We are writers, journalists, artists, human rights defenders, and those who stand in solidarity with them from around the world, including those who stay in Ukraine and made the difficult decision to leave our homes. On the one-year marking of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we write to express our collective condemnation of Russia’s multi-pronged war against the Ukrainian people and culture.
We grieve for the thousands of people killed as casualties of Russia’s campaign of violence. Russia’s war has sought to rupture Ukraine’s social fabric and culture, displacing millions of people in the destruction of cities and towns. We grieve for the deaths of writers, artists, journalists, cultural workers, and all who have cultivated Ukraine’s blooming culture and civil society sector.
In the last year, the space for free expression in Ukraine has been under attack by the Russian military’s actions. Russian soldiers have deliberately killed and kidnapped journalists and writers. Artists had to flee Ukraine in order to survive and continue their work. Russian bombardments have indiscriminately destroyed and damaged hundreds of places where Ukrainians experience culture and history, from community cultural houses to Holocaust memorial centers. There is evidence that the Mariupol Drama Theater, the 19th century Regional Youth Library in Chernihiv, and other remarkable cultural objects have been deliberately targeted. But Russia’s military actions since February 24, 2022, represent only one prong in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine.
Alongside the deliberate destruction of human life and infrastructure, Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied the existence of Ukrainian history and culture distinct from Russia. Since 2014, Russia has illegally occupied Crimea and parts of Luhansk and Donetsk, where writers, journalists, and activists have been jailed for their expression under the administration of the Russian Federation and armed separatist groups backed by Russia. Russian authorities have banned Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar language instruction and media and excavated a world heritage site to construct a revisionist history rooted in President Putin’s denial of other cultures.
Yet, despite being under attack, journalists, writers, artists, and cultural rights defenders continue to make art, write, and contribute to Ukrainian culture. Translators and members of the free press ensure that the realities of life in Ukraine and the impact of Russia’s violence are broadcast to the world. The diary entries, essays, poems, independent reporting, and street art are central to rebuilding in Ukraine when the war is over.
We, the signatories below, stand in solidarity with Ukraine’s culture and civil society sector and support its writers, artists, journalists, and cultural workers’ efforts to create life beyond Russia’s war. We reiterate our condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and call for the support of all journalists, cultural figures, and all unjustly persecuted in Ukraine for their expression.
Russia should be held accountable for its war crimes and human rights abuses. We urge the international community to support all Ukrainian efforts to investigate these crimes and ensure that the deliberate targeting of Ukrainian cultural heritage by the Russian regime is included in national accountability mechanisms as well as the international commission of inquiry for Ukraine.
We call on international governments to join us in solidarity by providing livelihood support to Ukrainian writers, artists, and journalists inside and outside the country and ensure that they can continue to create art wherever they are. Russia must be held accountable for its violations of cultural rights and human rights in Ukraine.
Signed,
INDIVIDUAL SIGNATORIES
Ayad Akhtar
Marie Arana
Reza Aslan
Margaret Atwood
Paul Auster
Carolina Barrero
Laura Bickford
Martin Bright
Robert Caro
Joyce Carol Oates
Rosanne Cash
Rohan Chakravarty
Ron Chernow
Ahmedur Tutul Chowdhury
Esther Claassen
Molly Crabapple
Lydia Davis
Mónica de la Torre
Gianluca Del Gobbo
Octavio DelaSuaree
Ariel Dorfman
Jennifer Egan
Louise Erdrich
Oskar Eustis
Jonathan Franzen
Ileana Fuentes
Claudia Genlui
Louis A. Gitinywa
Peter Godwin
Lev Golinkin
Lev Grossman
Jessica Hagedorn
Daniel Handler
James Hannaham
Tom Healy
Aleksandar Hemon
David Henry Hwang
Siri Hustvedt
Sunitha Janamohanan
Sofia Karim
Mary Karr
Sean Kelly
Nicole Krauss
Dr. Dominik Kuryłek
Chang-Rae Lee
Yiyun Li
John Lithgow
Valeria Luiselli
Allison Markin Powell
Guillermo G. Marmol
David Mazzucchelli
Jay McInerney
Askold Melnyczuk
Christopher Merrill
Claire Messud
Paul Muldoon
Azar Nafisi
Ahmed Naji
Maggie Nelson
Yanelys Nuñez Leyva
Jan Moritz Onken
Susan Orlean
Sarah D. Phillips
Robert Pinsky
Francine Prose
Alexis Romay
Dr. Piotr Rypson
Esmeralda Santiago
Katrina Stuart Santiago
George Saunders
Seth Schachner
Stacy Schiff
Dr. Katherine Schofield
Alice Sebold
Stéphane Segreto-Aguilar
Sharmila Seyyid
Elif Shafak
Fatima Shaik
Gary Shteyngart
Jane Smiley
Andrew Solomon
Alec Soth
Richard Stengel
Rose Styron
John Suarez
Cynthia Sweeney
Aatish Taseer
Anne Tyler
Russell Scott Valentino
Mario Vargas Llosa
Ayelet Waldman
Tara Westover
Jamie Wolf
Tobias Wolff
Sholeh Wolpé
KK Wootton
Jillian C. York
