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Russia's exile from sporting events is coming to an end. The International Paralympic Committee, or IPC, decided this week to allow six Russian and four Belarusian athletes to compete under their national flags in Italy next month. Russian athletes were initially banned because of a doping scandal more than a decade ago. With the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, they were banned from further competition, same for athletes from Belarus, which served as a staging ground for the military operation. The decision to end their exile has caused an outcry in Ukraine, as NPR's Polina Lytvynova reports from Kyiv.
POLINA LYTVYNOVA, BYLINE: The President of Ukraine's National Paralympic Committee, Valeriy Sushkevych, can't hide his disappointment.
VALERIY SUSHKEVYCH: (Speaking Ukrainian).
LYTVYNOVA: "This is a shame. I was outraged, angry and simply shocked by the cynicism of this decision," he says. Zhan Beleniuk, a former Olympian and current member of Ukraine's Parliament, told NPR the decision is all about politics.
ZHAN BELENIUK: (Speaking Ukrainian).
LYTVYNOVA: "I'm used to cynicism and double standards," he says. "Bureaucrats can find justification for any situation." During the Olympic Winter Games, which come to a close this weekend, Beleniuk points out that a Ukrainian athlete was banned by authorities for wearing a helmet showing the faces of Ukrainian athletes killed during the war. He says letting Russian Paralympians compete as the Kremlin bombs civilian targets in Ukraine sends the wrong message. He says Ukraine tried hard to keep the Russians out.
BELENIUK: (Speaking Ukrainian).
LYTVYNOVA: "We communicate with embassies," he says, "because it is very effective when countries simply do not issue visas to Russia's representatives who were involved in some kind of propaganda or supported the war." In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed the move, saying it would allow Russian athletes to compete under the Russian flag.
The Ukrainian team, meanwhile, is already in Italy. The president of the country's Paralympic committee says while its officials will boycott the formal ceremonies, the athletes will compete and try to win big. They came in second in the medal table in the last Games.
SUSHKEVYCH: (Speaking Ukrainian).
LYTVYNOVA: "If we don't go to the Paralympics, it means Putin managed to exclude us from the international Paralympic movement," he says. "The country needs our victory. It hopes and believes in us." Sushkevych hopes his team can give Ukrainians joy during a hard winter with severe cold and constant Russian attacks that cause low power and heat outages and, hopefully, a feeling of victory. Polina Lytvynova, NPR News, Kyiv.
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