Hundreds Of Russian and Ukrainian Animation Artists Join Together To Condemn Russia-Ukraine War

The Russian and Ukrainian animation community has released a collective statement condemning Russia’s military incursion into Ukraine.

The letter has been signed by over 700, directors, animators, producers, and other production personnel, as well as critics, historians, festival programmers, and other people connected to the community.

Signatories include Andrey Khrzhanovsky, Yuri Norstein, Konstantin Bronzit, Elena Chernova, Mikhail Aldashin, Irina Rubina, Igor Kovaylov, and Svetlana Filippova. The quick-expanding list of names can be found here.

Here is the full statement, translated from Russian:

We’re convinced that war brings nothing but death, pain and destruction. And nothing can justify it. The animation community of Ukrainian and Russian animation filmmakers is united and inseparable; we have been working together, watching each other’s films for many years. The art of animation is also an art that helps people to feel human. Not to kill, not to destroy. To unite.

And today our children, our brothers are sent to kill those with whom they recently played in the same yard and watched the same cartoons, without distinguishing whether they are Russian or Ukrainian ones.

Animation and art in general have always been imbued with anti-war spirit. We believe that the current military actions are directed not just at our Ukrainian friends and colleagues, but against all people, humanity and an as a whole.

We are against war. We want the words about the brotherly people not to turn in a bloody nightmare.

There is no justification for bombing and killing!

Image at top: “We Can’t Live Without Cosmos,” the Oscar-nominated short by Russian director Konstantin Bronzit, who has signed the statement.