In response to media inquiries regarding the announcement, under the auspices of UNESCO, of the competition for the International D.I. Mendeleev Prize in the Basic Sciences, financed by the Government of the Russian Federation, we once again emphasize the unacceptability of Russia’s attempts to whitewash its war crimes, including by manipulating the fields of science, education, culture, and sports.

The terrorist state of Russia continues to carry out daily missile and drone strikes against Ukrainian cities, destroying educational, scientific, and cultural facilities, and killing civilians, including children, scientists, teachers, and artists. Since the beginning of the full-scale war against Ukraine, Russia has destroyed or damaged at least 4,456 educational institutions and 1,443 research institutions.

Moscow systematically and grossly violates the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, the UNESCO Constitution, and all fundamental principles underlying UNESCO’s mandate to promote peace through education, science, and culture.

Russia has nothing in common with scientific discoveries or prizes - it is a country of barbarism, aggression, and disregard for human life. It deserves the Darwin Award, not the Mendeleev Prize.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has repeatedly appealed to the UNESCO Secretariat, calling on the Organization not to support or promote in its actions or communications the narratives, proposals, initiatives, or expert nominations of the Russian Federation, which is committing war crimes in Ukraine in the fields of science, education, culture, and other areas of UNESCO’s mandate. Such actions constitute a violation of international law and of the resolutions of the UN General Assembly and UNESCO. We will continue this work until our well-founded appeals are duly taken into account.

The MFA of Ukraine and the National Commission of Ukraine for UNESCO will continue to actively counter attempts to use international platforms to whitewash the aggressor state, while protecting the authority of UNESCO and ensuring adherence to the fundamental principles and values underlying its activities.

We appreciate UNESCO’s active position in support of Ukraine, including in the scientific sphere, and underscore the importance of implementing the UNESCO Action Plan for the Recovery of Science in Ukraine, presented in July 2025 in Kyiv and during the International Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome.

We recall that Ukraine is an active participant in the UNESCO Programme Steering Committee on the Safety of Scientists. It was precisely due to Ukraine’s persistent efforts that UNESCO recognized wars and armed conflicts as the main global challenge to the safety of scientists.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine calls on the international scientific community, UNESCO Member States, and all stakeholders to boycott the above-mentioned prize, which is financed by the aggressor state.

We believe that this prize should be abolished, and that the members of the jury should step down. We also call on the new Director-General of UNESCO not to appoint a new composition of the jury.

We are convinced that genuine science must serve peace, development, and humanism, rather than be used as an instrument of propaganda by an aggressor state.