Dear members of the international swing dance community!

We, the citizens of Ukraine, the Ukrainian dance community, are urging you to be true to the standards of the community and take care of the safety of the dance space in a context that has not been taken into account before - Russia's military aggression against Ukraine.

Every Ukrainian has suffered from the actions of the Russians. For some, it is the loss of their usual way of life, for many it is the loss of health (mental or physical), friends, family, property, home, or even life.

This war is not a conflict of interest, but a unilateral act of aggression against Ukraine. Russia is a country officially recognized by the world as a sponsor of terrorism, with its president facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (and several pending).

According to open sources, only 1/7 of the Russian population does not support the war, while the vast majority supports President Putin and his actions against Ukraine. In addition, the missiles that destroy Ukrainian cities are bought with money from "peaceful" taxpayers who do not want to change anything.

Given this statistics, we are inclined to consider any Russian who has not proved otherwise by his actions to be a terrorist supporter. And people involved in supporting terrorism must be made responsible.

That is why we insist on introducing a special regime of access to any dance event anywhere in the world for people with Russian citizenship.

We appeal to every organizer of dance events and ask that before involving people with Russian passports in their events, they offer them to sign a statement.

They must confirm that they

• condemn Russia's unprovoked armed aggression against Ukraine;
• are aware of their share of responsibility for the ongoing situation, in particular the public passiveness that led to the establishment of the criminal power of the current president of their country;
• confirm they don't and will not take any deliberate actions in support of the russian army;
• will not commit any violence, physical or verbal, against Ukrainians at the event and beyond;
• agree to the publication of their statement.

Otherwise, the organizers have the right to refuse them to participate and/or remove them from the event.

We propose that such additional control measures should remain in place until the withdrawal of Russian troops from the sovereign territory of Ukraine and the end of the armed aggression of the Russian army against Ukraine.

Similar actions of partial or complete blocking of Russian citizens have already been taken by many organizations around the world. For example:

- blocking of Russian cards by the banking sector (Visa, MasterCard, Revolut);

- a ban on tourist visas by many European countries;

- ban on Russia's official participation in the Olympics by the IOC;

- refusal to allow Russian athletes to compete under any flag by numerous sports federations.

We believe that the swing dancing community will stand up for human values and join the international anti-terrorism movement. Please sign this statement! The more signatures we collect, the better we will be able to distribute and convey our message. Each of your signatures is important.