Take action or make a statement re the Russian invasion of Ukraine

[indigoxela]

I belief, this issue queue (backdrop-community) is the right place to discuss this topic.

We're all concerned, but what can or should a software project do? (And what not?)

@alanmels started the topic in core backdrop/backdrop-issues#5712 and also a contrib project in https://github.com/backdrop-contrib/ukraine.

The Drupal Association statement: https://www.drupal.org/association/blog/drupal-association-statement-of-support-for-ukraine

Share your thoughts here!

[indigoxela]

War is bad - there's no doubt about that. The Russian invasion of Ukraine violates international law and has been started by a corrupt, autocratic regime.

A regime, that not only violates international law in the Ukraine, but also suppresses opposition, civil rights and free speech in general in Russia.

I think, we should settle on a direction, how an Open Source project like Backdrop - with a diverse international community - positions itself.

One thing to keep in mind: it's not the Russian culture, it's not the people we should condemn, but only the regime and its misguided followers - misguided by personal greed for power or deceived by propaganda.

[alanmels]

@indigoxela Thank you for taking this subject further. I don't want to be assertive of anything as everyone is entitled to have their own opinion and this is just my personal stance.

I've noticed that generally people far away from Ukraine do underestimate the importance of supporting Ukraine these days, they do not realize Ukrainians are fighting to death to save the whole world. The war in Ukraine against the mafia state of Russia is the last one - either the world will finally break that terrible regime or chaos will come not only to Europe, but also USA (be absolutely sure the Russian mafia state has been tying up with money and corruption various vulnerable figures in the whole political spectrum, especially both far-left and far-right groups of interests).

Many people do not realize that crazy minds of Russian imperialist ideologists Ukraine is just another step in concurring the "corrupt West" and then the whole world. What stance to take is up to the community, however be absolutely assured nobody in Backdrop community will be dealing with Backdrop if Ukraine looses this terrible war and the mafia starts creating much more serious problems for the whole world.

The only way to prevail for the civilized world over the mafia state is to demonstrate support to Ukraine now! Changing the name for the mafia-state would mean a moral support in the first place. I knew pretty well some people would take it with skepticism and, unfortunately, exactly that happened - they believe changing the name "Russia" to what it really is today seemed too radical and would not help Ukraine any. It would. It would mean giving tiny bit of moral support. That would be least what the community could do. Ideally, the community could come up with some kind of initiative to collect one-day of what everybody earns and give it to people of Ukraine who are fighting not only for their country, but actually fighting for YOUR own future.

[indigoxela]

So what can we do?

• The PMC could condemn the war in a clear statement
• The PMC could express support for the Ukrainian people (inside and outside our community)
• The PMC could encourage to donate to help people directly affected

We should maybe also encourage people in our forum to further discuss and share their thoughts?