Feb 24, 2022
WASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine:
“This unprovoked and unjustified Russian invasion is not just an assault on the democratic people of Ukraine, but also a flagrant violation of international law. We condemn it unreservedly because it traduces the fundamental principle that wars of aggression can never be the answer to disputes among nations.
“Tens of thousands of innocent lives are now in the sights of an oppressive, autocratic dictator who seeks to establish Russian hegemony and military domination in Eastern Europe. Putin lives in an alternate reality where he wants to go back to the bloody age of empire. Luckily, the Biden administration understands the grievous threat he poses the world and is levying economic and diplomatic sanctions against the Russian state and its oligarchic rulers.
“We stand in solidarity with our fellow unionists in the Ukrainian labor movement; with the educators, students and families in Ukraine; and with their democratic government in this moment of their trial and need.”