Olympics-Ukraine officials will boycott Paralympics over Russia participation, sports minister says

By Karolos Grohmann and Julien Pretot

MILAN, Italy, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Ukraine officials will boycott the Milano Cortina Paralympics next month over the participation of a handful of Russian and Belarusian athletes cleared to compete under their flags, Ukraine’s Sports Minister Matvii Bidnyi said on Wednesday.

Ukraine’s athletes will still take part in the March 6-15 Paralympics but Bidnyi said no Ukrainian official would be at the Opening Ceremony or any Games event, and he urged other countries to follow suit.

“In response to the Paralympics organisers’ outrageous decision to let russians and belarusians (sic) compete under their national flags, Ukrainian officials will not attend the Paralympic Games,” Bidnyi said on social media.

“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!”

Russia and Belarus will have a combined 10 athletes at the Paralympics following Tuesday’s decision by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

Russia will have two spots in Para alpine skiing, two in cross-country skiing and two in snowboarding while Belarus was awarded four places, all in cross-country skiing.

“It is a dirty decision, absolutely and not respectable, not European,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said speaking on Piers Morgan Uncensored. “I think this is an awful decision… and not just. We will react.”

The IPC did not respond to a request for comment.

BANNED FROM COMPETITIONS

Russia and Belarus were banned from Paralympic competitions after Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but regained full membership rights in the IPC after member organisations voted in September 2025 to lift their partial suspensions.

Belarus was a key staging area for the invasion.

International federations for each sport on the Paralympic Games programme had said they would maintain bans on athletes from those countries, but Russia and Belarus won an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in December against the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.

The European Commissioner for Sport Glenn Micallef said he would also not be attending the Paralympics Opening Ceremony.

“First allowing Russia and Belarus to return and now granting a wild card and fast-tracking participation without qualification? This is unacceptable,” Micallef said on social media.

“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. For this reason, I will not attend the Paralympics Opening Ceremony. I call on my like-minded counterparts to take the same stand,” he said.

Poland’s Sports Ministry said it would also stay away from the Paralympics’ Opening Ceremony.

“In the face of the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine, the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in sporting competition using their flags and anthems is absolutely unacceptable,” it said on social media.

MINISTER CONDEMNS DECISION

A limited number of Russians and Belarusians are competing as individual neutral athletes at the Milano Cortina Winter Games, with the Olympic Committees of the two nations still sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee.

“The decision by the Paralympic organisers to allow killers and their accomplices to take part in the Paralympic Games under national flags is disappointing and outrageous,” Bidnyi said.

“The flags of russia and belarus (sic) 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,” Bidnyi said.

Belarusian Alpine skier Maria Shkanova, competing as a neutral at the Milano Olympics, welcomed the IPC decision.

“I think it’s fair,” Shkanova told reporters.

(Additional reporting by Giselda Vagnoni and Iain Axon in Milan, Alan Charlish in Warsaw and Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Writing by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Alison Williams, Ken Ferris and Ed Osmond)