LINDAU, GERMANY - More than 100 Nobel Laureates from a wide range of disciplines have called for peace in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In a declaration released on Thursday (March 3), the 104 signatories, who include economist Daniel Kahneman and author J.M. Coetzee, called on governments and business leaders to "use scientific knowledge and technologies responsibly and with awareness of their long-term consequences".

They also urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to "respect international legal agreements, recall his forces, start negotiations and establish peace".

In the declaration supported by the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings, the signatories said: "The discovery of nuclear fission created the basis for the construction of nuclear weapons of destruction. Their current volume has the potential to make the Earth uninhabitable for humans and to wipe out human civilisation. Such weapons must therefore never be used."

Russian Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday ordered his country's nuclear forces to be put on high alert as their invasion of Ukraine continued.

Moscow has the world's largest arsenal of nuclear weapons and a huge cache of ballistic missiles which form the backbone of their deterrence forces.

The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings, formed in 1951, have developed into an international scientific forum with annual meetings alternating between the themes of Physics, Chemistry or Physiology and Medicine - the three Nobel Prize scientific disciplines.

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