{"id":810268,"date":"2026-03-07T14:41:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T14:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/810268\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T14:41:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T14:41:20","slug":"ukraine-leads-boycotts-as-athletes-from-russia-and-belarus-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/810268\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine leads boycotts as athletes from Russia and Belarus march"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia’s flag flew at a Paralympic Winter Games opening ceremony on Friday evening for the first time in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

The four Russian athletes were met with boos from spectators as they entered the historic Arena di Verona, waving to the crowd despite the hostile reception.<\/p>\n

This marked the flag’s first appearance at a winter edition of the Games since Russia hosted the event in Sochi in 2014.<\/p>\n

The delegation’s presence proved deeply controversial, with several nations refusing to participate in the parade at the ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Winter Paralympics.<\/p>\n

Ukraine led the boycott.<\/p>\n

Its athletes were absent from the ceremony, despite the country’s flag receiving one of the warmest receptions of the evening as it was carried into the arena by a volunteer.<\/p>\n

Six other nations joined the protest against the participation of Russian and Belarusian competitors.<\/p>\n

The Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Poland and Lithuania all refused to send their delegations to the parade.<\/p>\n

\"\\u200bRussian<\/p>\n

Russia’s flag flew at a Paralympic Winter Games opening ceremony on Friday evening<\/p>\n

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GETTY<\/p>\n

The controversy surrounding the inclusion of six Russian and four Belarusian athletes had dominated discussions in the lead-up to the Games.<\/p>\n

The International Paralympic Committee facing criticism from multiple countries over its decision to lift the ban.<\/p>\n

Belarus similarly returned to the Paralympic stage.<\/p>\n

Two athletes took part in the parade after facing the same ban imposed following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\"\\u200bRussian<\/p>\n

Russia had initially been excluded from the 2016 Summer Paralympics due to a state-sponsored doping scandal<\/p>\n

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GETTY<\/p>\n

Russia had initially been excluded from the 2016 Summer Paralympics due to a state-sponsored doping scandal, with further sanctions following the military action in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Now that the suspension has been lifted, the Russian national anthem could potentially be heard at a major international sporting competition for the first time since 2022, should any of their athletes claim gold.<\/p>\n

The Milan-Cortina Games will feature competition across 79 events spanning six sports.<\/p>\n

International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons acknowledged the difficult circumstances surrounding these Games during his address at the ceremony.<\/p>\n

\"Ukrainian<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian flag received one of the warmest receptions of the evening as it was carried into the arena by a volunteer<\/p>\n

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GETTY<\/p>\n

He said: “Four years ago I said I was horrified at what was happening in the world. Unfortunately, the situation has not improved.”<\/p>\n

Parsons argued sport provides an alternative perspective.<\/p>\n

He said: “In a world where some countries are better known by the names of their leaders, I prefer to know the countries by the name of their athletes.”<\/p>\n

Parsons said the Paralympics demonstrate how “differences are not reason for separation but sources of strength” and that “nations gather as neighbours.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia’s flag flew at a Paralympic Winter Games opening ceremony on Friday evening for the first time in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,12,512,93,657,144593],"class_list":["post-810268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ukraine","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-news","tag-sgg","tag-sport","tag-ukraine","tag-winter-olympics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116188419464527909","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}