Ukrainian officials will boycott next month’s Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics over the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes who have been cleared to compete under their flags.
Russia and Belarus will have a combined 10 athletes at next month’s Winter Paralympics following Tuesday’s decision by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
Ukrainian athletes will still take part in the 6-15 March Paralympic Games, but the country’s sports minister, Matviy Bidnyi, said no Ukraine official would be at the opening ceremony or any event of the Games.
Should a Paralympic athlete win gold, it will be the first time the Russian anthem has been played on the stage of a major global sporting event since the invasion.
Mr Bidnyi said: “In response to the outrageous decision to let Russians and Belarusians compete under their national flags, Ukrainian public officials will not attend the Paralympic Games.
“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!”
On Tuesday, the UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy wrote that the decision to allow the participation of the two countries was the completely “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,” she said.
In a statement on Tuesday, the International Paralympic Committee had confirmed Russia’s National Paralympic Committee had been awarded six slots for the upcoming Milan Cortina Paralympic Games.
It is another indicator that Russia and its national identity will be fully restored in Olympic circles well ahead of the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
It will mark the first time a Russian flag has been flown at the Paralympics since the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia. The country’s athletes were initially banned because of a state-sponsored doping program, and the sanctions against Russia have continued since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Should a Paralympic athlete win gold, it will be the first time the Russian anthem has been played on the stage of a major global sporting event since the invasion.
“The IPC can confirm that NPC Russia has been awarded a total of six slots: two in Para alpine skiing [one male, one female], two in Para cross-country skiing [one male, one female], and two in Para snowboard [both male],” the statement said.
“NPC Belarus has been awarded four slots in total, all in cross-country skiing [one male and three female].”
In September, the IPC voted to lift partial suspensions of Russia and Belarus.
However, IPC President Andrew Parsons told The Associated Press in November that there would be no athletes from those countries at the Milan Cortina Games because the sports’ governing bodies had maintained their bans.
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Sky Sports’ Sports News Correspondent Geraint Hughes explains why there are no Russian or Belarusian at the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
The following month, an appeal from Russia saw the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturn 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 since 2023 by the International Olympic Committee for breaking the Olympic Charter by using an administrative land grab to incorporate regional sports bodies in occupied eastern Ukraine.
That decision is under an IOC legal review, after the Russian Olympic body amended its statutes, and could be overturned within months.
Following a system used in Paris in 2024, Russian athletes are competing at the current Olympics as individual neutral athletes – using the French acronym AIN – and without their flag, anthem or team colours.
Russian media reported that Aleksey Bugaev, a three-time Paralympic champion in Alpine skiing, is one of the athletes who has been given a slot along with cross-country skiers Ivan Golubkov and Anastasiia Bagiian, who have both won medals at world championships.
All three returned to competition last month, and both Bugaev and Bagiian have since won World Cup titles.
Paralympics GB stand in solidarity Ukraine
In a statement, Paralympics GB reiterated its disagreement with the IPC’s decision to reinstate Russian and Belarusian athletes before reaffirming its support for the Ukraine.
“ParalympicsGB has consistently supported the decision to suspend NPC Russia and NPC Belarus, however the IPC membership recently made the decision to reinstate them and we have to recognise that decision.
“We are aware that following the successful Russian Paralympic Committee appeal to CAS, against the FIS decision to keep the suspension in place, a small number of Russian and Belarusian athletes have now secured bipartite places at Milano Cortina 2026.
“We have been clear throughout that we believe this is the wrong approach and the ban should have remained in place given the ongoing war in Ukraine. We continue to express our solidarity with the people of Ukraine and our friends at NPC Ukraine.”
