Ukraine’s sports minister has condemned the decision to allow six Russians and four Belarusians to compete under their nation’s flags at next month’s Winter Paralympics as “disappointing and outrageous” and said Ukraine officials will not attend the opening ceremony or other official events as a result.
“The flags of Russia and Belarus have no place at international sporting events that stand for fairness, integrity, and respect,” said Matvii Bidnyi in response to the International Paralympic Committee’s decision on Monday. “These are the flags of regimes that have turned sport into a tool of war, lies and contempt. In Russia, Paralympic sport has been made a pillar for those whom Putin sent to Ukraine to kill – and who returned from Ukraine with injuries and disabilities,” he added.
Russia’s flag and anthem has not been heard at an Olympics or Paralympics since Sochi in 2014 because of the state-sponsored doping scandal and the invasion of Ukraine. However, in September the IPC lifted its ban, before confirming on Monday that Russian and Belarusian athletes would be allowed to compete. Bidnyi urged the IPC to reconsider its decision before the Games begin on 6 March.
“Athletes and para-athletes in Russia glorify the war and receive state honours,” he said. “That is why Ukraine imposed sanctions on sports propagandists, the Paralympic Committee of Russia, and its president, Pavel Rozhkov.
“Giving them a platform means giving a voice to war propaganda. When the Russian flag is raised on the international stage, it becomes part of Russia’s propaganda machine,” he added. “It sends a message to the world that the war is ‘normal’. No, it is not normal. It is deeply outrageous that officials of the IPC refuse to understand this.”
Of the decision to avoid the opening ceremony, Bidnyi added: “We will not be present at the opening ceremony. We will not take part in any other official Paralympic events. We thank every official from the free world who will do the same. We will keep fighting!”
The Russian news agency Tass says that Aleksey Bugaev, a three-time Paralympic champion in alpine skiing, along with cross-country skiers Ivan Golubkov and Anastasiia Bagiian, who are both world championship medallists, have been given invitations to Milano Cortina. All three returned to competition in January and both Bugaev and Bagiian have since won World Cup titles, raising the strong possibility that Russia’s anthem will be heard next month.
The UK’s culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, also urged the IPC to think again, saying it had made “completely the wrong decision”. “Allowing athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete under their own flags while the brutal invasion of Ukraine continues sends a terrible message,” Nandy wrote on X. “The IPC should reconsider this decision urgently.”
Meanwhile, on Monday the owner of Ukrainian football club Shakhtar Donetsk said he had donated more than $200,000 to the skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych, who was disqualified from the Winter Olympics for wanting to wear a “helmet of memory”, depicting 24 athletes killed in the war with Russia. The amount is equal to the prize money Ukraine pays athletes who win a gold medal at the Games.
