By Karolos Grohmann and Julien Pretot
MILAN, Italy, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Ukraine officials will boycott the Milano Cortina Paralympics next month over the participation of a handful of Russian and Belarusian athletes cleared to compete under their flags, Ukraine’s Sports Minister Matvii Bidnyi said on Wednesday.
Ukrainian athletes will still take part in the March 6-15 Paralympics but Bidnyi said no Ukraine official would be at the opening ceremony or any event of the Games, and he urged other countries to follow suit.
“In response to the Paralympics organisers’ outrageous decision to let Russians and Belarusians (sic) compete under their national flags, Ukrainian officials will not attend the Paralympic Games,” Bidnyi said on social media.
“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!”
Russia and Belarus will have a combined 10 para athletes at next month’s Paralympics following Tuesday’s decision by the International Paralympic Committee.
Earlier, Bidnyi called the decision to allow six Russians and four Belarusians to participate in the Paralympics a sign of support for Russia’s propaganda.
Both countries were banned from Paralympic competitions after Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but regained full membership rights in the IPC after member organisations voted in September 2025 to lift their partial suspensions.
Belarus was a key staging area for the invasion.
International federations for each sport on the Paralympic Games programme had said they would maintain bans on athletes from those countries, but Russia and Belarus won an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in December against the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, earning a handful of spots.
MINISTER CONDEMNS DECISION
A limited number of Russians and Belarusians are competing as individual neutral athletes without flags or anthems at the ongoing Milano Cortina Winter Games, with the Olympic Committees of the two nations still sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee.
“The decision by the Paralympic organisers to allow killers and their accomplices to take part in the Paralympic Games under national flags is disappointing and outrageous,” Bidnyi said.
Russia will have two spots in Para alpine skiing, two in Para cross-country skiing and two in Para snowboard while Belarus were awarded four slots in total, all in cross-country skiing – one male and three female.
“The flags of Russia and Belarus have no place at international sporting events that stand for fairness, integrity, and respect. These are the flags of regimes that have turned sport into a tool of war, lies, and contempt,” Bidnyi said.
HERASKEVYCH SPEAKS OUT
His comments come hours after Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych, who was disqualified from the Winter Olympics over a helmet depicting Ukrainian athletes killed in the war, criticised Games organisers’ decision to have a Russian volunteer carry a sign ahead of the Ukraine delegation at the opening ceremony.
The volunteer, a Russian living in Milan, had wanted to carry the sign because she condemned Russia’s invasion and wanted to support Ukraine, according to local media.
“I don’t want to attack anyone personally, but overall this situation with the Paralympic Committee, with the IOC, with the disqualification and with Russian flags, feels like the IOC is doing some campaign against the Ukrainian nation,” Heraskevych told Reuters from Kiev.
The IOC said there was no discrimination against any nation or athlete at the Games. All decisions relating to Heraskevych were driven by the rules of the Olympic Charter that limit any expression on the fields of play, it said.
“We asked them (all athletes) for that specific moment, that field of play moment to be free of any messages,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams told the same press conference. “We ask that from any country, from any athlete, from anywhere in the world.”
He said he was aware of the sign bearer, but added: “We don’t closely vet all of our volunteers but a Russian volunteer carrying a sign, for me it is not an issue. Tell me differently.”
Luca Casassa, Milano Games spokesman, told the press conference there were more than 1,200 volunteers at the opening ceremony. “They worked to make the opening ceremony something unique. We cannot vet each and every volunteer,” he said.
(Writing by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Alison Williams and Ken Ferris)
Comments