Ukraine said Wednesday that its officials will not attend the Winter Paralympics next month over organizers’ decision to allow a handful of Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their flags.
Ukrainian athletes will still take part in the Milan Cortina Games, scheduled for March 6-15, but no officials from Ukraine will be at the opening ceremony or any events, Sports Minister Matvii Bidnyi said.
In a statement to NBC News, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), which operates separately from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) running the Winter Olympics, said that 10 Para athletes from Russia and Belarus would be allowed to compete at the Paralympics and that they will do so under their countries’ flags.
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That is a marked departure from the IOC’s position, under which athletes from Russia and Belarus compete as independent neutral athletes. Twenty such athletes have been cleared to compete in Milan Cortina without national flag, colors or anthems.
Belarus was a key staging area for the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and its athletes have been subjected to the same bans as Russia on the international stage.
“The decision by the @Paralympics organizers to allow killers and their accomplices to compete at the Paralympic Games under national flags is both disappointing and outrageous,” Bidnyi said in a separate statement Wednesday as he accused the IPC of giving a voice to Russia’s war propaganda.
“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,” he added.
The European Commission's sport commissioner, Glenn Micallef, said on X that he would boycott next month's opening ceremony, adding: "While Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine continues, I cannot support the reinstatement of national symbols, flags, anthems, and uniforms, that are inseparable from that conflict."
Britain's culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, said on X that lifting the ban was "completely the wrong decision" and called for it to be reconsidered, though she did not say whether the U.K. would join a partial boycott.
Johan Eliasch, the president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, told the BBC the decision had "not been easy" and called for "respect" for people's different feelings.
Russia and Belarus were banned from Paralympic competitions after the invasion, but they regained full membership rights and privileges in the IPC after member organizations voted in September not to maintain their partial suspensions.
Russia will have two spots in Para alpine skiing, two in Para cross-country skiing and two in Para snowboard, while Belarus was awarded four slots in total, all in Para cross-country skiing, the IPC’s statement said.
The new controversy comes just days after Ukrainian skeleton racer and flag bearer Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the Winter Olympics for wearing a helmet honoring his country’s athletes killed in the war.
The IOC ruled that the helmet violated the Olympic Charter guidelines and could not be used in competition.
When Heraskevych refused to comply, saying it was a gesture of remembrance and not a political statement, he was banned from competing. The IOC’s decision drew anger from officials in Kyiv, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
