Open Letter of European Academic Community Supporting an Embargo on Fossil Fuels from the Russian Federation

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Parent Category: NEWS ARCHIVE
Category: AESOP

We, European scientists, in the face of the brutal aggression of Vladimir Putin against an independent country of Ukraine, appeal to the authorities of the European Union to immediately impose an embargo on imports of coal, oil and natural gas from the Russian Federation.

Aware of economic and social consequences of imposing such an embargo on hydrocarbons, we still think they do not constitute a sufficiently legitimate justification for the current passive tolerance of the violence towards thousands of innocent victims and millions of refugees displaced by this war. It is our moral duty to Ukraine, and to ourselves as Europeans who believe in freedom and democracy, to sever all the economic ties with the aggressor until Ukrainians can again live peacefully in their free country.

Maintaining and paying authoritarian Russia for deliveries of coal, oil and gas is a political mistake. It gives to Putin the money he needs to prolong his war, which is unprecedented in Europe since World War II and poses a threat to the European Union and to global security. Therefore, we appeal for an immediate embargo on Russian fossil fuels.

As scientists, we declare a commitment to focused and intense scientific activities in our fields in order to alleviate the adverse economic effects of a sharp reduction in imports of hydrocarbons from imperialist Russia. Today, after decades of scientific research into climate change and reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, we are ready to take that step more than ever before. New methods of energy saving, diversification, storing and clean energy generation, developed in many European scientific institutions to meet the goals of the Green Deal 2050 strategy are ready. These efforts can and should be intensified, and the amount of investment into green energy needs to be increased.

During the Covid-19 pandemic we saw the power of collective international community. Our free societies endured the restrictions while the authorities of the European Union and its member countries, together with scientists and industry took joint action aimed at unprecedentedly swift invention, production and distribution of covid tests and a variety of a vaccines, thus saving millions of human lives. We can do that again.

Today, witnessing Vladimir Putin’s war crimes, European nations are ready to take difficult decisions. Let us take that momentous occasion and make that decision for the good of the Ukrainian nation, for the good of the free democratic world and for the good of our planet.

To sign this letter please send your name, title, position and name of your institution to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please include “I wish to sign the Open Letter for Ukraine” in the subject line.

Signatories affilated in Europe:

  1. Monika Arczyńska, Ph.D., Adjunct professor, Gdańsk University of Technology
  2. Piotr Balcerowicz, Professor, University of Warsaw
  3. Karol Bandurski Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Poznan University of Technology
  4. Iuliia Barshadska, Dr. des., Consultant, Haus des Stiftens gGmbH
  5. Jens Bastian, Ph.D., Independent Financial Sector Analyst & Economic Consultant, Athens
  6. Ewa Bichta, Ph.D. Candidate, Univeristy of Warsaw & Junior researcher, Warsaw University of Technology
  7. Florian Bieber, Professor, Jean Monnet Chair, Center for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz
  8. Anna Bogdan, Ph.D. D.Sc., Associate Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  9. Karsten Brüggemann, Prof. Dr., School of Humanities, Tallinn University
  10. Wojciech Bujalski, Ph.D. D.Sc., Associate Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  11. Jerzy Chojnacki, Ph.D. Sc.Eng., Koszalin University of Technology
  12. Edward Hunter Christie, Senior Research Fellow, The Finnish Institute of International Affairs
  13. Cristiana Croitoru, Ph.D. Habil., Associate Professor, Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest
  14. Marek Czyński, Ph.D. D.Sc., Associate Professor, West Pomeranien Uniwesity of Technology in Szczecin
  15. Franziska Davies, Ph.D., Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
  16. Gerard Govers, Prof. Dr., Vice rector Science, Engineering and Technolog, KU Leuven
  17. Sven Jaros, Ph.D., IOS Regensburg
  18. Artur Jerzy Filip, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  19. Angelos Ginannakopoulos, DAAD-Professor, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy & Visiting Professor, University of Düsseldorf
  20. Josip Glaurdić, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Luxembourg
  21. Piotr Gołębiowski, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  22. Nick Hacking, Ph.D, School of Social Sciences Cardiff University
  23. Tomáš Halík. Prof. PhDr., Th.D., dr.h.c., Charles University Prague
  24. Olexiy Haran, Prof. Dr., Kyiv Mohyla Academy
  25. Krzysztof Herner, Chief specialist for digitization, Coal Mining Museum in Zabrze
  26. Jaap Hogeling, P.Eng., M.Sc., ASHRAE Director-At-Large, Editor-in-Chief of the REHVA-Journal
  27. Mieste Hotopp-Riecke, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Caucasica-, Tatarica- und Turkestan-Studies, Magdeburg
  28. Oleksandra Ivashchenko, Ph.D., Medical Physicist, Leiden University Medical Center
  29. Artur Karczewski, Ph.D., Adiunkt, Gdańsk University of Technology
  30. Oleksandra Keudel, Ph.D., Kyiv School of Economics
  31. Karol Jan Kowalski, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  32. Markus Krzoska, Dr. hab., Privatdozent, Justus-Liebig-Universität, Giessen
  33. Konrad Kucza-Kuczyński, Prof. Ph.D. D.Sc., Professor Emeritus, Warsaw University of Technology
  34. Jarek Kurnitski, Prof. Dr. Eng., Professor, Tallinn University of Technology
  35. Detlef Kurth, Prof. Dr.-Ing., Technische Universität Kaiserslautern
  36. Taras Kuzio, Professor, National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy
  37. Kwieciński Krystian, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  38. Håkan Lane, Research Group Scientific Methods, Brandenburg Medical School
  39. Annika Lindskog, Senior lecturer in Economics, School of Economics, Business and Law, University of Gothenburg
  40. Agnieszka Machowska, Ph.D. D.Sc., Assistant Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  41. Myroslav Marynovych, Vice-Rector for University Mission, Ukrainian Cathoilic University (Lviv)
  42. Michał Marzantowicz, Ph.D. D.Sc., Associate Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  43. Olaf Mertelsmann, Prof. Dr., University of Tartu
  44. Christian Methfessel, Ph.D., Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (München - Berlin)
  45. Caroline Mezger, Ph.D., Visiting Assistant Professor, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich
  46. Hanna Michalak, Prof. Ph.D. D.Sc., Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  47. Izabela Mironowicz, Professor, Gdańsk University of Technology
  48. Michal Mochtak, Ph.D., Visiting Researcher, University of Luxembourg
  49. Katarzyna Modrzejewska, Ph.D., Warsaw University of Technology
  50. Ivan M. Myhul, Ph.D., Professor, Ukrainian Free University, Munich
  51. Monika Neff, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  52. Michael Neuman, Professor, University of Westminster
  53. Mirosław Orzechowski, Ph.D. D.Sc., Associate Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  54. Karolina Ostrowska-Wawryniuk, Ph.D. Candidate, Warsaw University of Technology
  55. Lex Paulson, Lecturer in Advocacy and Human Rights, Sciences Po-Paris
  56. Paweł Pedrycz, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  57. Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, Jacques Delors Energy Centre
  58. Andreas Petersen, Ph.D., Lecturer, FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland
  59. Hans-Christian Petersen, Prof. Dr., Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg
  60. Łukasz Piątek, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  61. Paweł Popielski, Ph.D. D.Sc., Associate Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  62. Karol Prałat, Ph.D. D.Sc., Associate Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  63. Agnes Psikuta, Ph.D., Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology
  64. Paula Quinon, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  65. Oliver Reisner, Professor, Ilia State University Tbilisi
  66. Neil Robinson, Professor, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Limerick
  67. Roman Ruczyński, Ph.D., Gdańsk University of Technology
  68. Per Anders Rudling, Associate Profossor, Lund University
  69. Sabine Rutar, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief/Senior Researcher, Leibniz-Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg
  70. Yuliya von Saal, Ph.D., Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (München - Berlin)
  71. Robert Sekret, Prof. Dr. Eng., Professor, Czestochowa University of Technology
  72. Nikola Schmidt, Ph.D., Senior Researcher, Institute of International Relations, Prague
  73. Robert Skrzypczyński, Ph.D. Candidate, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology
  74. Melissa Sterry, Ph.D., Director, Bioratorium, United Kingdom
  75. Cyrill Stachniss, Prof. Dr., University of Bonn, Germany
  76. Krystyna Solarek, Prof. Ph.D. D.Sc., Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  77. Rafał Świercz, Ph.D. D.Sc., Associate Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  78. Konrad Świrski, Prof. Ph.D. D.Sc., Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  79. Stefan Troebst, Prof. em. Dr., Leipzig University
  80. Hubert Trammer, member of the High Level Roundtable of the New European Bauhaus
  81. Bohdan Vitvitsky, Ph.D., J.D., independent scholar
  82. Andreas Wagner, Prof. Dipl.-Ing., Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
  83. Janusz Walo, Ph.D. D.Sc., Associate Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  84. Przemysław Wielowiejski, Ph.D., Copernicus Science Centre
  85. Leszek Wiśniewski, Ph.D. Candidate, Warsaw University of Technology
  86. Anna Wierzbicka, Ph.D. D.Sc., Associate Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  87. Martina Winkler, Prof. Ph. D., Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
  88. Thomas Wortmann, Tenure-Track Professor, University of Stuttgart
  89. Alexander Wöll, Professor, University of Potsdam
  90. Kinga Zinowiec-Cieplik Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  91. Jolanta Żak, Ph.D. D.Sc., Associate Professor, Warsaw University of Technology
  92. Magdalena Żmudzińska-Nowak, Ph.D. DSc., Professor, Silesian University of Technology

Signatories affiliated outside Europe:

  1. Denise de Alcantara Pereira, Associate Professor, Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro
  2. David Amborski, Professor, Ryerson University
  3. Eduard Baidaus, Ph.D., HREC Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Alberta
  4. Jars Balan, Director, Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Centre, University of Alberta
  5. Omer Bartov, John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor, Brown University
  6. Fabian Baumann, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Chicago
  7. Olga Bertelsen, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Tiffin University
  8. Larysa Bilous, Ph.D., University of Alberta
  9. Walter Clemens, Dr., Associate, Harvard University & Professor Emeritus, Boston University
  10. John Connelly, Professor, University of California, Berkeley
  11. Bohdan Hawryluk, Adj. Faculty Adjunct, New York University
  12. Michael P. Hrycak, J.D., Adj. Professor, Union County College, Cranford, New Jersey
  13. Elizabeth Hull, Professor, Rutgers University, New Jersey
  14. Roger E. Kanet, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, University of Miami & University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  15. Juozas A. Kazlas, Ph.D., Political Analyst, New York
  16. Bohdan Klid, Research Associate, University of Alberta
  17. Olha Klymenko, Research Associate, University of Alberta
  18. Askold Lozynskyj, President Ukrainian Free University Foundation
  19. David R. Marples, Distinguished University Professor, University of Alberta
  20. Alexander J. Motyl, Professor, Rutgers University-Newark
  21. Nasir Muhammad, Ph.D. Candidate, Florida International University, Miami
  22. Jan Musekamp, DAAD Visiting Associate Professor, University of Pittsburgh
  23. Richard Parker, Prof., Senior Fellow and Lecturer, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
  24. Łukasz Rachel, Ph.D., Princeton University
  25. Steven Seegel, Professor, University of Texas at Austin
  26. Marko R. Stech, Director of CIUS Press and Scholarly Publications, University of Alberta
  27. Frank E. Sysyn, Ph.D., Director of the Peter Jacyk Centre for Ukrainian Historical Research, University of Alberta
  28. Yuriy Tarnawsky, Ph.D., Asst. Adj. Professor, Ret., Columbia University
  29. Madhu Thangavelu, Lecturer, University of Southern California
  30. Steven J. Zipperstein, Professor, Stanford Universit