Ukraine’s Winter Paralympics crew will boycott the occasion’s opening ceremony subsequent month after Russian and Belarusian athletes have been invited to compete beneath their nationwide flags.
On Tuesday, it was introduced six Russian and four Belarusian athletes will take part in alpine snowboarding, cross-country snowboarding and snowboarding on the Milan-Cortina Games, which begin on 6 March.
Both nations had beforehand been suspended from Paralympic competitors after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with Belarus an ally of Russia.
In September, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) lifted its ban on athletes from the 2 nations competing on the Games.
However, the IPC doesn’t govern the six sports activities contested on the Paralympics and regardless of the person our bodies, together with the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), refusing to raise their very own bans, Russia and Belarus received an enchantment to the Court of Arbitration of Sport towards FIS.
As a outcome, athletes have been ready to return to FIS competitions and the ten Paralympians have been awarded bipartite fee invites to compete in Italy.
Following an announcement that Ukrainian officials would avoid the entire competition, the nation’s National Paralympic Committee now says crew members won’t participate within the opening ceremony.
The organisation has additionally made a “demand that the Ukrainian flag not be used”.
The crew will nonetheless compete within the Games and “fight for the sporting victories of Ukrainian athletes”.
In response, the IPC informed BBC Sport: “The IPC is in regular dialogue with NPC Ukraine and we are discussing the statement within the IPC.”
An IPC information convention, that includes president Andrew Parsons, was due to happen on Friday in Milan however has been cancelled.
Later on Friday, the Czech Paralympic Committee additionally introduced it will not participate within the opening ceremony “in any form”.
Earlier this week in its response to criticism over the choice to permit the Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete, the IPC stated it was a “democratic organisation and the decision to lift the partial suspension of NPCs Belarus and Russia was taken by IPC member organisations at the 2025 General Assembly”.
