Overview
- Ukraine’s Paralympic Committee said its team will skip the March 6 opening ceremony in Verona and asked that the Ukrainian flag not be used there.
- The move follows an IPC decision to admit six Russian and four Belarusian athletes to Milan-Cortina 2026 with their national flags, uniforms and anthems.
- Ukrainian officials condemned the policy reversal, with committee president Valeriy Sushkevych calling it a moral failure that enables display of aggressors’ symbols.
- Kyiv’s government said no state representatives will attend the ceremony or related events, while the IPC said it is in contact with Ukraine and a planned briefing with president Andrew Parsons was canceled.
- Ukraine plans to compete with 36 athletes and about 22 staff despite disrupted training and funding cuts that have lowered expectations compared with 2022.