Below please find recent efforts and reading list re: advocating for peace in the Urkaine. Last updated 3/14/22.
No Nuclear War in Urkaine
Supported by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, SF Bay PSR, PSR National, and others.
As healthcare professionals, we call for NATO and the Russian Federation to renounce the use of nuclear weapons in this conflict and for an immediate cease fire and the withdrawal of all Russian military forces. We are extremely concerned about the heightened risks of nuclear harms, including from the use of nuclear weapons and from potential damage to the 15 nuclear power plants in the region. We must protect Ukraine’s people and sovereignty. Our own government must work for immediate and long-term diplomatic solutions that will provide for true security, both at home and abroad. And we must follow Ukraine’s lead in their negotiations for peace.
READ MORE & SIGN
Medical Appeal: No war in Europe
As of the morning of February 14, 316 health professionals from Europe and elsewhere in the world have published an appeal today, initiated by the Nobel Peace Prize laureate the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), calling for war in Europe to be averted. Warning that a war would be a humanitarian disaster, they call on all conflict parties to choose diplomacy over escalation.
The medical appeal and the initial list of signatories can be found HERE.
SF Bay PSR Statement on Russian invasion of Ukraine
We at SF Bay PSR are heartbroken and enraged at Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a brutal Russian military invasion of Ukraine in clear violation of fundamental international law principles. We recognize, along with many other expert observers, that this happened in the historical context of many provocations by our country and allies since the collapse of the Soviet Union, particularly the increasing expansion of the nuclear-armed NATO alliance to the borders of Russia. However, this context does not abrogate our strong condemnation, especially given the clear dangers of a nuclear confrontation occurring from this assault. Indeed, we are reinforced in our understanding that War is Not the Answer, and should never be to the complex geopolitical tensions exacerbated by our unfolding climate crisis.
As Michael T. Klare presciently wrote yesterday in the Nation, before last night’s fullbore military assault commenced, the real victors of Russia’s invasion will be the global military-industrial complex and allied fossil-fuel interests that will amass even more profits from heightened U.S. militarism involving Russia and China as designated main enemies. All imperiling a Green New Deal or other path to the Just Transition that is necessary for survival as a species in an exponentially deteriorating planet.
We need to hold true to our principles, to firmly advocate for peace and diplomacy, not more unbridled militarism, as a critical first step to equitably harness our global resources and collective political will to begin the difficult path toward making sure our children, and all who follow, can have a healthy world to grow and thrive in.
We hope you can take the time to look at the responses that follow from many of our fraternal colleagues in our global movement for peace and justice, illustrative of the solidarity we need to move forward from this disaster.
Peace and gratitude,
Robert M. Gould, MD
President, San Francisco Bay PSR
MORE READINGS AND RESOURCES
- PSR National: Physicians for Social Responsibility Condemns the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
- ICAN condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
- WATCH discussion by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War: War in Eastern Europe: On the Brink of a Humanitarian Disaster
- Joint Statement from the Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group Condemning Russian Nuclear Threats
- International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW): The Ukraine Crisis Could Trigger a Nuclear Disaster
- Russian Congress of Intellectuals: An Open Letter to the Russian Leadership
- Physicians for Human Rights: Ukraine Efforts
- Doctors Without Borders: Ukraine Efforts
- IPPNW Briefing Paper: War in Eastern Europe – On the Brink of a Humanitarian Disaster
- Politico: Putin’s nuclear option: New deployments risk undoing years of nonproliferation progress, by Beatrice Fihn, Beatrice Fihn is a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, ICAN.
- The Nation: Ukraine and the Threat of Nuclear War—Why do we fail to consider the danger?
