World Data System, an affiliated body of the International Science Council (ISC), supports the ISC’s statement on the war in Ukraine. The WDS stands with the ISC in condemning the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, along with CODATA and a growing number of other ISC members.

The WDS includes two members in Ukraine.  The World Data Center for Geoinformatics and Sustainable Development (WDS-Ukraine), located at the National Technical University of Ukraine in Kyiv joined WDS in 2011. The Ukrainian Geospatial Data Center located at the Space Research Institute in Kyiv joined WDS in 2012.

The WDS is deeply concerned for the freedom and wellbeing of the many employees, committee members, engineers, scientists, and their friends, families, students, and colleagues impacted by the invasion.

The WDS has six member repositories in Russia:

• WDC – Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Moscow (since 2011)
• Data Centre for Geography, Moscow (since 2012)
• WDC – Meteorology, Obninsk (since 2012)
• WDC – Oceanography, Obninsk (since 2012)
• WDC – Solid Earth Physics, Moscow (since 2012)
• Centre for Astronomical Data of the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2017)

WDS members are expected to strive to build worldwide excellence in data services for science, and to create global communities of excellence in the pursuit of science as a global public good. The WDS continues to follow and advocate for the ISC statutes of the free and responsible practice of science.