Russian, Belarusian athletes to compete under own flag at Paralympics 2026

Ukraine reacts angrily to the International Paralympic Committee’s decision, saying the move was ‘disappointing and outrageous’.

Ukraine has slammed the move to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their own national flags at the Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics 2026 and overturn the ban imposed after Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Russia and Belarus will have a combined 10 para-athletes at next month’s Paralympics, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said in a ⁠statement on Tuesday.

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“The decision by the @Paralympics organisers to allow killers and their accomplices to compete at the Paralympic Games under national flags is both disappointing and outrageous,” Ukraine’s Sports Minister Matvii Bidnyi wrote on social media.

Russian and Belarusian flags “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,” he added.

Attacking President Vladimir Putin, Bidnyi said, in Russia, “Paralympic sport has been made a pillar for those whom Putin sent to Ukraine to kill – and who returned from Ukraine with injuries and disabilities.”

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

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 back in December against the ‌International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS).

“Following the decision by IPC members at September 2025’s IPC General Assembly … and December’s subsequent Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision … both NPCs were eligible to apply for bipartite slots through FIS for the Milano-Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games in the sports of Para alpine skiing, Para cross-country skiing and Para snowboard,” the IPC said in a statement, referring to the National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) of Russia and Belarus.

Russia will have two spots in Para alpine skiing, two in Para cross-country skiing ⁠and two in Para snowboard.

“NPC Belarus has been awarded ⁠four slots in total, all in cross-country skiing – one male and three female,” the IPC added.

While the athletes can compete under their own flags at the Paralympics from March 6 to 15, a limited number of Russian and Belarusian ⁠athletes are competing as independent neutral athletes without flags or anthems at the ongoing Winter Games, with the Olympic committees of the ⁠two nations still sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee.

The ⁠IPC’s decision left Ukrainian Vladyslav Heraskevych, who was disqualified from the skeleton event at the Olympics last week, fuming.

The IPC decision left Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych, who was last week disqualified from the skeleton event at the Milano – Cortina Olympics, fuming.

“It’s ‌absurd that they gift some quotas,” Heraskevych, who was disqualified for wanting to wear a helmet depicting Ukrainian athletes killed during Russia’s invasion of his country, told the Reuters news agency.