Ukraine Paralympians to Boycott Opening Ceremony
The Paralympics opening ceremony will be staged at Verona Arena.
Ukraine's Winter Paralympics team has announced it will boycott the event's opening ceremony next month following the invitation extended to Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their national flags.
On Tuesday, it was confirmed that six Russian and four Belarusian athletes will participate in alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, and snowboarding at the Milan-Cortina Games, which commence on 6 March.
Both Russia and Belarus had previously been suspended from Paralympic competition after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with Belarus being an ally of Russia.
In September, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) lifted its ban on athletes from these two countries competing at the Games.
However, the IPC does not govern the six sports contested at the Paralympics. Despite individual bodies, including the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), refusing to lift their own bans, Russia and Belarus successfully appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against FIS.
Consequently, athletes have been permitted to return to FIS competitions, and the 10 Paralympians have received bipartite commission invitations to compete in Italy.
Following an earlier announcement that Ukrainian officials would avoid the entire competition, the country's National Paralympic Committee has now stated that team members will not participate in the opening ceremony.
The organisation has also issued a
"demand that the Ukrainian flag not be used".
Despite the boycott of the opening ceremony, the team will continue to compete in the Games and
"fight for the sporting victories of Ukrainian athletes".
In response, the IPC told :
"The IPC is in regular dialogue with NPC Ukraine and we are discussing the statement within the IPC."
An IPC news conference featuring president Andrew Parsons, which was scheduled for Friday in Milan, has been cancelled.
Earlier this week, in response to criticism over the decision to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete, the IPC stated it is a
"democratic organisation and the decision to lift the partial suspension of NPCs Belarus and Russia was taken by IPC member organisations at the 2025 General Assembly".
It added:
"At this meeting nearly 180 of the IPC's 211 members were in attendance and voted on this matter. We have to respect the decision of our members who come from all over the world."
In its statement announcing the boycott, the National Paralympic Committee of Ukraine described the IPC's decision as
"shameful"and stated it
"completely contradicts the principles"of the Games.
Bipartite commission invitations are granted to individual athletes rather than their international federations and allow the participation of top athletes
"who may not have had the opportunity to qualify through other methods due to extraordinary circumstances".
The IPC, with the support of international federations—in this case FIS—decides who receives the bipartite slots after receiving recommendations from the federation.
Ukraine has also been awarded bipartite slots in three sports.
