Ukraine’s national sports minister said Wednesday that officials from the country would not attend the upcoming Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games, in protest over a decision to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their national flags.
The International Paralympic Committee has lifted a ban in place for three years on athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus competing under their national flags. The ban was issued in response to Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“The IPC can confirm that NPC [National Paralympic Committee] 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 committee said in a statement. “NPC Belarus has been awarded four slots in total, all in cross-country skiing (one male and three female).”
The 2026 Paralympics begin on March 6.
Immediately after the invasion in February 2022, the International Olympic Committee effectively barred Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing in Olympic and Paralympic Games under their national flags.
A decision the following year permitted athletes from those countries to participate in Olympic Games as neutral competitors, but national symbols, including flags, anthems and team uniforms, remained prohibited.
Ukraine’s Minister of Youth and Sports, Matvii Bidnyi, strongly condemned the decision and said officials from the country would not take part in any Paralympic events, though Ukrainian athletes would still compete.
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“The decision by the Paralympics organisers to allow killers and their accomplices to compete at the Paralympic Games under national flags is both disappointing and outrageous,” he wrote on social media.
He stressed that Ukrainian athletes — who have often performed well in Paralympic competition, finishing second on the medals table at the 2022 Beijing Games — would not take part in the boycott.
Some European officials also condemned the decision to let Russian and Belarusian athletes compete under their flags – which could, if the country takes a gold medal, see the first playing of Russia’s national anthem at an Olympic or Paralympic event in years.
European Union Commissioner for Sport Glenn Micallef said he would join Ukraine in boycotting the Paralympics opening ceremony, calling the decision to allow Russian athletes to compete under their national flag “unacceptable.”
“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,” Micallef said.
Lisa Nandy, the U.K. Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, also condemned the decision.
“Allowing athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete under their own flags while the brutal invasion of Ukraine continues sends a terrible message,” Nandy said, calling it “completely the wrong decision” and urging the IPC to “reconsider this decision urgently.”
The debate highlights the challenge for Games organizers of keeping the Olympics as free as possible of politics. Earlier this month, Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the Winter Olympics for wearing a “helmet of memory” depicting Ukrainian athletes killed in the war with Russia.
CBS News has asked the International Paralympic Committee to comment on the decision to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their flags.
