Ukraine's sports minister slams Paralympics allowing in some Russian athletes

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 18 : Allowing six Russian athletes to participate in next month's Milano Cortina Paralympics with their flag and anthem is outrageous and a sign of support for Russia's propaganda, Ukraine's sports minister said on Wednesday. 

Russia and Belarus will have a combined 10 para athletes at next month's Paralympics following Tuesday's decision by the International Paralympic Committee.

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 and Snowboard Federation, earning a handful of spots.

MINISTER CONDEMNS DECISION

A limited number of Russian and Belarus athletes are competing as independent neutral athletes without flags or anthems at the ongoing 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,” Ukrainian minister Matvii Bidnyi said on social media.

“Giving them a platform means giving a voice to war propaganda. When the russian (sic) flag is raised on the international stage, it becomes part of russia’s (sic) propaganda machine," he said.

Russia will have two spots in