More than 50 Nobel laureates have written letters to world leaders calling for a ceasefire during the Olympics

On the eve of the opening of the Summer Olympic Games in Paris, 51 Nobel Prize winners have issued an open letter calling for an end to the armed conflicts raging around the world, including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

The text of the letter, addressed to the warring parties, Pope Francis, Bishop Bartholomew of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Dalai Lama XIV, representatives of Islam and Judaism, the UN, the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), was published by the French newspaper Le Monde on Saturday, 13 July.

"Local wars are no longer local. And for the first time in decades, a bloody war – between Russia and Ukraine – is tearing the European continent apart," the Nobel laureates said. – The consequences of this protracted conflict, now in its third year, are affecting a number of countries: it is exacerbating hunger in Africa, causing a migration crisis in Europe and, with each bombing, contaminating water, food and milk consumed by people on six continents. In addition, by the end of the year, for the first time since the Second World War, the number of people killed and wounded in Central Europe will exceed one million."

The letter also states that, against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, defence budgets around the world have increased so much that these funds, if spent on other purposes, could slow global climate change or eradicate world hunger within 80 years.

"Just imagine: no one would go hungry, no one would die of hunger, no child would be malnourished. But instead of working for life, we spend our resources on sowing death," the authors state.

The Nobel laureates point out that most of the war dead are aged 30-40. "Thus, each of them has lost about forty years of life expectancy," they reason. – "Thus, when 100,000 people die, it means the loss of four million years of life – not made discoveries, not born children.

Addressing the world's religious leaders, the UN, the European Parliament and the PACE, the Nobel laureates call on them to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine, as well as to resolve other conflicts.

"There must be a ceasefire. Stop the loss of life. Prevent a nuclear catastrophe," they conclude their open letter with these words.

Among others, the appeal was signed by Nobel Peace Prize winner and former editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta Dmitry Muratov and Nobel Prize in Literature winner and Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksievich.