A return of the flags of the Russian delegation which does not pass. Ukraine announced on Thursday that it would boycott the opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Paralympic Games on March 6 due to the IPC's decision to reauthorize Russian athletes to compete under their colors despite the war which continues to rage between the two countries.
Published on: 02/20/2026 - 10:07 Modified on: 02/20/2026 - 11:19
Neither managers nor athletes. Ukrainians will not participate in the opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Games on March 6 in Verona to protest the International Paralympic Committee's recent decision to allow Russian athletes to compete under their national flag.
“The Ukrainian Paralympic team and the Ukrainian National Paralympic Committee are boycotting the opening ceremony of the 14th Paralympic Winter Games and demanding that the Ukrainian flag not be used during the opening ceremony,” the body said in a statement published on Thursday (January 19).
This announcement comes two days after the decision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to allow six Russian and four Belarusian athletes to take part in the 2026 Paralympic Games (March 6-15) under their flag, thus putting an end to the exclusion of Russia and Belarus banned since the invasion of Ukraine triggered by Moscow in February 2022 with the support of Minsk.
Russia and Belarus were excluded from the 2022 Paralympic Games and then authorized to participate under a neutral banner in the Paris Summer Paralympic Games.
“Scandalous” decision
On Tuesday, Ukraine described this reintroduction of Russian and Belarusian athletes to the Paralympic Games as "scandalous" and its officials announced a boycott of the official events planned in Milan-Cortina. From now on, the entire delegation from this country will be absent from the opening ceremony, just like the European Commissioner for Sport Glenn Micallef who also said he was opposed to this decision.
“The community of Ukrainian Paralympic athletes and the Ukrainian National Paralympic Committee are outraged by the cynical decision of the International Paralympic Committee to award bipartisan places to Russia and Belarus, allowing six Russian Paralympic athletes and four Belarusian Paralympic athletes to participate in the XIV Paralympic Winter Games,” the statement said.
“We draw attention to the fact that neither Russia nor Belarus have followed the qualification process to obtain licenses to participate in these Games,” further deplores the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee.
The IPC has in fact allocated ten invitations to para-athletes from these two countries. Russia will therefore be able to be present in Milan-Cortina with two representatives in Paralympic alpine skiing (one man, one woman), two in Paralympic cross-country skiing (one man, one woman) and two in Paralympic snowboarding (two men), Belarus will participate in the cross-country skiing events with one man and three women, the international body specified.
No sports boycott
The president of the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee, Valeriy Sushkevych, told AFP on Tuesday evening that his country's para-athletes would not sportingly boycott the event. Ukraine, which traditionally obtains good results at the Winter Paralympic Games, finished second in the medal table four years ago in Beijing.
“If we don't go, it would mean allowing Putin to claim victory over the Ukrainian Paralympic athletes and Ukraine by excluding us from the Games,” the leader said. “That won't happen!”
And Valeriy Sushkevych emphasized that the motto of the Ukrainian team at the 2022 Games, “Peace for all”, which had been displayed throughout the event, had not been taken up this time by the IPC.
“At the time, the IPC leadership supported our fight against war. Today, it has changed its position and has not respected the values of humanity, democracy and the philosophy of the international Paralympic movement. But we will continue to fight to unite nations in the fight against war,” he concluded.
With AFP
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