The National Paralympic Committee of Ukraine has said that the Ukrainian Paralympic team and the committee itself will boycott the opening ceremony of the 14th Winter Paralympic Games and demand that the Ukrainian flag not be used at the opening ceremony of the Paralympics-2026. The statement was published on the committee’s website late in the evening on 19 February.
At the same time, the National Paralympic Committee added: “We will fight for sports victories of Ukrainian athletes at the XIV Winter Paralympic Games and together with athletes from other countries to achieve the principles of fairness in Paralympic sport, supporting the main goal of the Paralympic Games as the highest sporting forum in the world”.
The committee also stressed that the community of Ukrainian Paralympians and outraged by the “cynical decision” of the International Paralympic Committee to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate in the 2026 Paralympic Games in Italy under their national flags.
“Please note that neither Russia nor Belarus went through the qualification process to obtain licences to participate in the Paralympics in Milano-Cortina! Moreover, this happened in accordance with the status that the Russian and Belarusian Paralympic Committees have received as countries carrying out the horrific military aggression on the territory of Ukraine,” the statement reads.
“It must be realised that Russia, which today occupies Ukrainian territories, massacres civilian people-women, children, the elderly, people with disabilities-and immediately raises its flag, drenched in the blood of Ukrainian civilians, on the territories it has seized. This is the flag of the murderous country that the IPC leadership gives the opportunity to raise at the Milano-Cortina Winter Paralympics, giving the maximum number of slots for participation to representatives of Russia,” the committee said.
The National Paralympic Committee of Ukraine says that this decision has “exactly political character, because it completely contradicts the principles of allocation of slots for participation in the Paralympics, and gives Russia the opportunity to demonstrate its political attributes at the Paralympics-2026: such as the flag and anthem”.
On 18 February, Valeriy Sushkevych, president of the National Paralympic Committee of Ukraine, said in a commentary for hromadske that Ukraine was not considering not participating in the Paralympics.
“If we do not go, it would mean allowing Putin to defeat Ukrainian Paralympians, Ukraine, excluding us from the games. That will not happen!” he emphasised.
The International Paralympic Committee announced this week that six Russians and four Belarusians will be allowed to compete under their national flags at the Paralympic Games in Italy. The committee said these athletes will be given “the same treatment as representatives of any other country.”
Ukrainian Youth and Sports Minister Matvey Poor said that representatives of the Ukrainian government would boycott the Paralympic Games in Italy because of the decision.
The Italian government has expressed categorical disagreement with the decision to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in the 2026 Paralympic Games in Milan under their national flags. A statement by Council of Ministers Vice President and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Sports Minister Andrea Abodi also called on the International Paralympic Committee to reconsider the decision.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga thanked Tajani and Abodi for their clear stance on the “shameful decision to allow the use of the national emblems of Russia and Belarus” and called on partner countries to boycott the opening ceremony of the Paralympics.
Moscow said the Italian ministers’ actions were a manifestation of the Italian authorities’ cowardly acquiescence to the increasingly audacious demands of the vile Zelensky regime and its fifth column in the Apennines, double standards and a gross violation of the principles of the Olympic Charter.
The Winter Paralympic Games will run from 6 to 15 March.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian and Belarusian athletes have been allowed to compete at the Olympics only under a neutral flag.