On Saturday, February 26, 2022, the CEHS Board approved the following statement on the crisis in Ukraine:
The Central European History Society condemns Russia’s recent invasion of sovereign Ukraine as an act of naked aggression. Almost as disturbing as the violence and bloodshed President Vladimir Putin has unleashed is the way that he has instrumentalized and falsified the history of the Second World War and the crimes committed against the Jews of Europe to justify his imperialist ambitions. As historians of Central Europe, many of whose work engages this history in an ethical way to provide the historical truth based on evidence, such falsifications have a distinctly pernicious cast. CEHS stands with the people of Ukraine and its sovereign government in this crisis and expresses deep respect for Russian citizens who, at great personal risk to themselves, stand up against this abuse of their country’s name.