Eminent writers urge Russian speakers to tell truth of war in Ukraine

Another dozen distinguished authors from around the world, including the Nobel laureate JM Coetzee, have backed the appeal.

It comes as the Russian government cracked down on access to news and information about the invasion of Ukraine by blocking websites and effectively closing broadcast outlets.

As well as Alexievich, the Russian authors are: Vladimir Sorokin, one of the most popular writers in modern Russian literature; Lyudmila Ulitskaya, the 2014 winner of the Austrian state prize for European Literature; the science fiction writer Dmitry Glukhovsky; the satirist Victor Shenderovich; the poet Maria Stepanova; Alexander Ilichevsky, who won the Russian Booker prize in 2007 for his novel Matisse; Mikhail Shishkin, who won the Russian Booker in 2000; Maxim Osipov, a cardiologist as well as a writer; Sergei Lebedev; Liza Alexandrova-Zorina; Sascha Filipenko; Alisa Ganieva; Viktar Martinovich; Alexander Genis; Lev Rubinstein; and Boris Akunin.