Dear brothers and sisters, representatives of the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine,
We, the participants of the Berlin Conference “On the Situation of Indigenous Peoples of Russia” (27–28 November 2025), address you with a deep sense of solidarity, respect, and sincere sorrow for what your peoples and all of Ukraine are forced to endure as a result of the unjust armed aggression carried out by Putin’s Russia.
We know that the war unleashed by the Russian state against Ukraine has brought your peoples enormous losses, destruction, and hardship. We know that the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine — the Crimean Tatars, Krymchaks, and Karaites — have faced occupation, deportation, mass persecution, the destruction of cultural environments, and attempts to eradicate their national identity. We express our full support for you in your struggle for freedom, rights, land, self-determination, and your future.
Sadly, representatives of the Indigenous Peoples of Russia — including members of our own communities — are being drawn into this war, often through mobilization, coercion, economic pressure, or the lack of any real choice. We fully understand the pain of this situation. It places us in a difficult moral and political position. This is precisely why we speak openly: we do not support this unjust war unleashed by Russia’s dictator, Vladimir Putin. It has nothing in common with our values, with our traditional relationship to the land, to human life, to peace, and to justice.
Today our peoples face threats arising from the policies of a state that uses our territories, resources, and lives as instruments of its imperial and colonial strategy. We understand that as long as there is no democracy and no respect for human rights in Russia, neither the Indigenous Peoples of Russia nor the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine can have guaranteed security.
We affirm the right of the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine to self-determination, self-government, and the preservation of their lands, cultures, and languages. We fully support the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Ukraine and believe in its victory over Russian imperialism.
We believe that international solidarity among Indigenous Peoples is a force capable of resisting destruction, injustice, and violence. Today, joint efforts, the exchange of experience, mutual support, and engagement with international mechanisms capable of protecting our rights and future generations are needed more than ever.
We are confident that the day will come when the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine and the Indigenous Peoples of Russia will meet not in the conditions of war, but in an atmosphere of peace, cooperation, and mutual respect — when we can build a future based on the principles of democracy, dignity, and international law; when our voices will be heard not through the noise of artillery, but through dialogue, mutual recognition, and fraternity.
We wholeheartedly wish you strength, resilience, and a swift victory — a victory of freedom over oppression, truth over falsehood, and life over destruction. Dear Ukrainians, we sincerely wish you strength, resilience, and the victory of Ukraine in this war.
We stand with you.
We stand beside you.
With respect,
Participants of the Berlin Conference
“On the Situation of Indigenous Peoples of Russia”
Berlin, 28 November 2025