Two star dancers have announced they are quitting the Bolshoi Ballet, as Russia’s best-known cultural institution becomes swept up in the international backlash against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. On March 7, Italian Jacopo Tissi said he was leaving his role as a principal dancer with the Moscow-based dance troupe in protest. “I am shocked by this situation that has come upon us from one day to the next, and quite honestly, I find myself unable to continue with my career in Moscow,” Tissi wrote in a post published on Instagram. “No war can be justified. Ever. And I will always be against every kind of violence,” he added. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jacopo Tissi 🇮🇹 (@jacopotissi) The 27-year-old was only promoted to the top rank of the ballet company in January. Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini praised Tissi’s move calling it a “brave and noble choice”. I can not act like nothing is happening Brazilian Bolshoi dancer David Motta Soares On the same day, Brazilian dancer David Motta Soares also announced his resignation. The 24-year-old, a leading soloist at the Bolshoi, sent a message of solidarity with those “struggling” in Ukraine. “I’m deeply sad to say that I have left the Bolshoi Theater my teachers my (colleagues) my friends my family the place I called home for many years,” Soares wrote on Instagram. “I can not act like nothing is happening, I just can not believe this is all happening again I thought we have (been) through this and learned (from) the past,” he wrote. View this post on Instagram A post shared by David Motta Soares (@davidmottasoares) The two resignations followed that of the Bolshoi Theatre’s music director and principal conductor, Tugan Sokhiev, who stepped down on March 6, saying he felt pressured to take a position on the Ukraine conflict. Sokhiev also said he was resigning as conductor of an orchestra in the French city of Toulouse, where officials had pressed him to clarify his attitude to the invasion. “Today I am forced to make a choice and choose one of my musical family over the other. I am being asked to choose one cultural tradition over the other,” he said in an English-language post on Facebook. “I have decided to resign from my positions as Music Director of Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse with immediate effect.” Meanwhile the Royal Opera House in London announced on March 7 that it would not be using a former colleague of Sokhiev’s at the Bolshoi for an upcoming performance of Swan Lake . Last week, it cancelled a season of performance by the Bolshoi Ballet. “Given the ongoing situation in Ukraine, it is not possible for Pavel Sorokin, conductor for the Bolshoi Orchestra, to guest conduct for the Royal Ballet at this time,” a statement said. Last month Russian conductor Valery Gergiev was fired by Italy’s La Scala and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra after he failed to condemn the invasion of Ukraine. As Putin’s forces intensify their attack on Ukraine and the toll of civilians killed mounts, an economic, sporting and cultural backlash against Russia has grown. Athletes from Russia and close ally Belarus have been barred from the Winter Paralympics. The Cannes Film Festival in France and other major film festivals have banned Russian productions. Major Hollywood studios have stopped distributing films in Russia. Meanwhile, the curator and artists behind Russia’s national pavilion at the Venice Biennale art show resigned in protest at the war in Ukraine. China has also suffered a cultural backlash for its refusal to join in condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A local administration in France has scrapped a loan of artworks by Henri Matisse for a major exhibition this month, citing the geopolitical crisis initiated by Russia’s declaration of war on Ukraine as the reason. Reuters, Agence France-Presse. Additional reporting by Staff Reporter