Andrii Butenko: Science is not apolitical: Ukraine stands up to russian influence in the international arena
On Monday, russia struck the building of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. And today we are once again forced to explain to the world why the russian academic system cannot keep living as if this war did not exist. In fact, we have been explaining this for years. We carefully follow the international ties of russian institutions, gather evidence of support for aggression, document propaganda, the misappropriation of Ukrainian scientific institutions and journals, false affiliations, and the labeling of occupied Ukrainian territories as russian. This is large, often invisible work: letter by letter, organization by organization, journal by journal. Because russia is trying to seize Ukraine not only physically, it is trying to entrench the occupation in international databases, catalogs, journals, university partnerships, and scientific organizations.
As early as 2022, we stopped reacting in isolation and began systematically drawing the international academic community's attention to this problem. The Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) created a dedicated, standing working group. We identify a specific russian institution and verify it. We confirm support for aggression, propaganda, or violations of international or copyright law, and document it. We see an international partner and reach out. We receive a refusal and come back again. As of the end of the second quarter of 2025, MoES had sent more than 30 official appeals to international organizations asking them to suspend or terminate the membership of institutions from the aggressor state. And these are not thirty letters with a generic «please support Ukraine.» Each one cites specific institutions, specific ties, specific facts, and evidence.
And yes, it works. Dozens of russian scientific organizations have already been expelled from international bodies. IREG announced the exclusion of eight russian universities. The International Association of Universities removed seven from its membership. After our appeal, the EUCEN steering committee agreed to suspend the membership of a russian university, and removed its name from the organization's website. Two international organizations, ICO and ICHS, launched internal investigations after receiving our materials. After separate work with the ISSN International Center, approaches to publications from the occupied territories have changed: the use of the UA code, truthful information on the origin of publications, and a mechanism for correcting or canceling unlawful ISSN records have all been endorsed. Scopus and Web of Science, which have supported Ukraine since 2022 by providing free access to their resources, now mostly label the temporarily occupied territories as Ukrainian following MoES appeals. This is what international pressure means when it does not end with a statement of «deep concern.»
The highest level made the most important decisions. russia has been suspended from Horizon Europe, and funding for russian institutions has been halted. CERN ended its cooperation with russia and belarus: it suspended observer status and did not renew international agreements. In July 2025 in Rome, MoES, Italy's Ministry of University and Research, the European Commission, and UNESCO signed the Rome Declaration and launched the International Coalition in Support of Ukrainian Science, Research and Innovation. On 15 October, its inaugural meeting took place in Brussels, with 14 countries, the European Commission, UNESCO, the OECD, ESA, CERN, and NATO Science for Peace taking part. The ERAC, the Ukraine—EU/Euratom Committee, the Ukrainian—German working group, and the Eastern Partnership raised the issue of countering russian propaganda.
Behind each of these decisions are people we are grateful to: the European Commission and Marc Lemaître, Director General for Research and Innovation. Stéphanie Obertin, Minister for Research and Higher Education of Luxembourg. Stefan Oertner, State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Mitch Davies, President of the National Research Council of Canada. Italy and UNESCO for the Rome Declaration. The CERN Council. Frances Pinter and SUPRR, the Ukrainian branch of EASE, and Iryna Izarova for her work on ISSN. The State Scientific and Technical Library; the researchers at the Institute for Scintillation Materials and Sumy State University, who demonstrated the scale of editorial board falsification and gathered evidence of international organizations' cooperation with russian institutions. We thank those who did not look away.
At the same time, the numbers show the scale of what we are dealing with. In 2022—2024 alone, Ukrainian territories were labeled as part of the russian federation more than 2,000 times in many well-known international publications. For publications from occupied Sevastopol, such cases reached 99%; for Simferopol, 95%; for Donetsk and Luhansk, 80%. Ukrainian institutions in the occupied territories were displayed in international databases as russian. Ukrainian scientific journals were appropriated along with their titles, archives, and ISSNs, and occupation structures tried to pass themselves off as their legal successors. Even in the editorial boards of russian journals, we found large-scale manipulation: in 67.6% of 148 cases checked, scholars reported that they had not performed the editorial functions attributed to them or had learned of their «membership» for the first time. At least 17 are effectively «dead souls.»
Other statistics are also outrageous. Some international organizations, even after receiving evidence, cite their own «non-political» status. ISC and INQAAHE have continued cooperation with russia. Some addressees did not respond at all. As of the second quarter of 2025, only a third of the international organizations reported decisions to exclude representatives of the aggressor state; two of them launched internal investigations, and the rest of the appeals were ignored. In 2025, we even had to appeal separately to the organizers of a CERN symposium over the participation of representatives of two russian institutes that, according to MoES materials, were under sanctions for cooperating with russian military-industrial companies. And here a very simple question suggests itself: how much more evidence is needed?
The sharpest issue is that Springer Nature, through Pleiades Publishing, distributes about 200 russian journals. Among them is content from institutions under US and EU sanctions, including the Space Research Institute of the RAS and the Lebedev Physical Institute. These journals have repeatedly referred to Crimea, Donetsk, and Kherson as parts of russia. And on the Springer Nature platform itself, Ukraine is divided into four entries: Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, other regions. No other country, even a federal one, is split this way. Our appeal to the company produced no result and the answer was «political neutrality.» And those among russian academicians who develop weapons, spread propaganda, and finance the aggressor's army are still not under either EU or US sanctions.
More than 30 appeals. More than 10 russian universities expelled. Two international investigations. More than 2,000 recorded cases of distorted affiliation for Ukrainian territories. Changed ISSN approaches. And we still keep finding russian structures on international platforms, russian representatives at conferences, and Ukrainian territories in certain systems where their affiliation is still presented incorrectly. We still encounter the argument of «science outside politics.» But after yesterday's strike on the Presidium of the NAS of Ukraine, this formula sounds especially cynical. A russian drone did not ask the Academy building whether it was «outside politics.» russia itself long ago made science part of this war: through its state academic structures, work in the occupied territories, propaganda, military research, and support for aggression. MoES materials document precisely these forms of involvement by russian academic institutions.
That is why we are asking for decisions. Specific ones that can be taken right now:
Clear rules for publishers and databases. The European Commission must officially clarify to publishers and platform operators that dividing Ukraine into «regions» and labeling Ukrainian cities as russian violates the ISO 3166 standard, UN General Assembly resolutions, and the EU non-recognition policy, and therefore carries legal risks.
A review of the Pleiades/Springer Nature scheme. The competent authorities of the EU and its member states must investigate the companies' financial and distribution activities for hidden funding of sanctioned russian institutions, including the RAS.
Personal sanctions. The leadership of the russian Academy of Sciences and the russian Union of Rectors, as well as the heads of «self-proclaimed institutions» and occupation journals in the seized territories of Ukraine, must be added to EU sanctions lists.
Protection of EU funds. Additional ethical screening in Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ must fully rule out the participation of russian universities that have supported the war, and the use of European grants by those who legitimize the occupation.
Joint diplomatic pressure. EU member states must call on the ISSN International Center to revoke the numbers of journals unlawfully published by occupation administrations based on Ukrainian universities. And the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) must issue binding recommendations on boycotting such materials.
Because we have already proved the main thing: international pressure works. The question now is not whether we can push russian influence out of international science. We can. The question is why, after everything that has happened since 2022, we still have to convince anyone that this needs to be done.