Ukrainian authorities plan to boycott next month’s Milan-Cortina Winter Paralympics over the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus, who are allowed to compete under their national flag.
Russia and Belarus will field 10 athletes for next month’s Winter Paralympics, following Tuesday’s decision by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
Ukrainian athletes will continue to participate in the Paralympic Games, which run from March 6 to 15, but the country’s sports minister Matvy Bidny said no Ukrainian officials would attend the opening ceremony or any events at the Games.
If the Paralympic athletes win the gold medal, it will be the first time since the invasion that the Russian national anthem will be played on stage at a major global sporting event.
“Following the outrageous decision to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete under their national flag, Ukrainian civil servants will not attend the Paralympic Games,” Bidny said.
“We will not attend the opening ceremony. We will not participate in any other official Paralympic competitions.”
“We thank all the officials of the free world for doing the same.
“We will continue to fight!”
On Tuesday, the UK’s secretary of state for culture, media and sport, Lisa Nandy, wrote that the decision to allow both countries to take part was completely the “wrong decision”.
“Allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their national flags as the brutal invasion of Ukraine continues sends a terrible message,” she said.
The International Paralympic Committee confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that the Russian National Paralympic Committee has secured six spots for the upcoming Milan-Cortina Paralympic Games.
This is another indicator that Russia and its national identity will be fully restored in the Olympic world ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
This will be the first time the Russian flag will be flown at the Paralympic Games since the 2014 Sochi Games in Russia. The country’s athletes were initially suspended for a state-sponsored doping program, and sanctions against Russia have been in place since the country’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
If the Paralympic athletes win the gold medal, it will be the first time since the invasion that the Russian national anthem will be played on stage at a major global sporting event.
“The IPC has confirmed that NPC Russia has won a total of six spots: two spots in para-alpine skiing (one male and one female), two spots in para-cross-country skiing (one male and one female) and two spots in para-snowboarding (both male),” the statement said.
“NPC Belarus was awarded a total of four spots in the cross-country ski category (one male and three female).”
In September, the IPC resolved to lift partial suspensions against Russia and Belarus.
However, IPC president Andrew Parsons told The Associated Press in November that athletes from those countries would not participate in the Milan-Cortina Games as the sport’s governing body maintained the ban.
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Sky Sports sports news correspondent Geraint Hughes explains why Russians and Belarusians will not be participating in the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
The following month, following an appeal from Russia, the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned a blanket ban imposed by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, paving the way for Russians to compete as neutral athletes at the 2026 Olympics and with their own flag and anthem at the Paralympics.
The Russian Olympic Committee has been suspended from 2023 by the International Olympic Committee for violating the Olympic Charter by using administrative land grabs to incorporate regional sports organizations in occupied eastern Ukraine.
The decision is under legal review by the IOC and could be overturned in the coming months after Russia’s Olympic body revised its rules.
Following the system to be used in Paris 2024, Russian athletes are competing at the current Olympics as neutral individual athletes without a flag, national anthem or team colors, using the French acronym AIN.
According to Russian media reports, three-time alpine skier and Paralympic champion Alexei Bugaev is one of the athletes given a spot along with world championship medal-winning cross-country skiers Ivan Golubkov and Anastasia Bagian.
All three returned to competition last month, and Bugaev and Bagian have both won World Cup titles since then.
Paralympic GB expresses solidarity in Ukraine
In a statement, Paralympic GB reaffirmed its support for Ukraine after reiterating its disagreement with the IPC’s decision to reinstate athletes from Russia and Belarus.
“Paralympic GB has consistently supported the decision to suspend NPC Russia and NPC Belarus, but the IPC membership has recently taken the decision to reinstate them and we must take cognizance of that decision.
“We are aware that a small number of Russian and Belarusian athletes have secured dual slots for Milan-Cortina 2026 as a result of the Russian Paralympic Committee’s appeal to CAS against the FIS decision to uphold the suspension.
“We have consistently made clear that we believe this is the wrong approach and that the ban should remain in place, given the ongoing war in Ukraine. We continue to express our solidarity with the Ukrainian people and our friends at NPC Ukraine.”
