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

MILAN, Italy, Feb 18 : 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.

Ukrainian athletes will still take part in the March 6-15 Paralympics but Bidnyi said no Ukraine official would be at the opening ceremony or any event of the Games, 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 para athletes at next month's Paralympics following Tuesday's decision by the International Paralympic Committee. 

Earlier, Bidnyi called the decision to allow six Russians and four Belarusians to participate in the Paralympics a sign of support for Russia's propaganda.

Both countries 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 with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in December against the International Ski