On 24 February 2022 Russian has started an all-out war against Ukraine in what is the most blatant violation of international law in Europe since World War II. There are flagrant violations of human rights on Russian-occupied territories, and indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas by Russian non-guided artillery and missile systems is a war crime. Actions by Russia have already inflicted thousands of civilian deaths and displacement of over two million Ukrainian citizens, who fled the country for safety. There are also numerous reports from Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, citing extrajudicial killings, rapes and looting by Russian soldiers. A member of Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine was killed in Russian shelling of Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

In response to Russian invasion and human rights violations, and also its occupation of Crimea and Donbass, we demand that services of Upwork would be denied to Russian companies and freelancers, as funds acquired this way might be in large extent used to further the agenda of illegal and immoral war being waged against sovereign nation of Ukraine. High standards of business mean not only caring about work environment and profit, but also wider implications of work being done — such as climate impact or not financing human trafficking or war violating international law and compromising human rights.