It is hard to believe, but it is true. Last night Russia launched an attack on Ukraine. Tanks are moving forward. Military and transport targets are being shelled in all Ukrainian regions. IUF affiliates, including the Agricultural Industry Workers Union of Ukraine (AIWU), are in touch with their regional organizations. The union’s offices are situated in areas that can be targeted by bombing and as such are being closed. We are concerned for the lives of our comrades who are in the areas of conflict, and we express our support for them.
The IUF Ukraine Coordination Council has been informed that food processing enterprises in Ukraine are closing. The Artemsol salt mining complex, the Philip Morris tobacco factory at Kharkiv, and the JTI tobacco factory at Kremenchug have closed. The ABInBevEfes brewery at Chernigov is preparing to close, and production has stopped at the Coca-Cola plant in Kyiv. A decision has been taken to close the Lactalis milk processing unit at Nikolaev after the raw products in hand have been processed. Milk deliveries have ceased.
Millions of peaceful working people have already become victims of this war. But the Russian military operation will not only harm the Ukrainian economy. It will also land a terrible blow to enterprises in Russia itself where the financial system is already on the brink of collapse.
This war is the source of boundless human suffering. It must be stopped immediately. Russia must call off all military action, withdraw its forces and return to diplomatic methods of regulating disagreements.
War is madness. Stop this war!
Kharkiv, 24 February 2022
Click here to read the statement in Russian.
