Since its inception, the InterAction Council of former world leaders has stood for the advance of international law, the peaceful resolution of disputes, and the enhancement of multilateral rules, norms, and standards. All these values are being violated today by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. No state has the right to use military force to change the borders of a peaceful neighbour or to occupy the territory of a neighbour. To allow this to pass would take the world backwards to the 19th Century world of colonies and empires, a retrograde step almost inconceivable in the 21st Century.
The InterAction Council calls on President Putin to call off this invasion and to return to diplomacy to try and settle all outstanding issues. The risks of escalation are too great and the consequences for international order too grave for military power to be the primary means to settle disputes.
Above all the InterAction Council is deeply concerned about the innocent lives that will be lost through the terrors unleashed by war. We call for this invasion to cease.