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The National Paralympic Committee of Ukraine and the national Paralympic team of Ukraine are compelled to state that, since the very beginning of the XIV Winter Paralympic Games, the national Paralympic team of Ukraine, its athletes, and coaches have been subjected to systematic pressure from representatives of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the Games Organizing Committee.
The team leadership and its members attempted to avoid a radical reaction to these manifestations of pressure, hoping that they were accidental in nature and not biasedly directed against the Ukrainian team.
However, recent events have proven that these manifestations are systematic in nature and have reached a critical and disgraceful level in their treatment of both the team and its members.
But never before has our team and its staff leaders experienced such openly negative manifestations and even obstacles directed against Ukrainians as representatives of a national paralympic committee that is one of the leaders in the development of the Paralympic movement and in results in Paralympic sports.
We are compelled to list some of these negative manifestations by representatives of the IPC and the Organizing Committee:
- With permission from a representative of the Organizing Committee, the Ukrainian Paralympic team hung the Ukrainian flag on the building where they are residing — a flag that the team has hung on their accommodation buildings at the last four Paralympic Games without objection from the leadership of the IPC or the Organizing Committee. Some time after the flag was displayed, a representative of the Organizing Committee appeared and forced its removal. When the team leadership asked why and on what specific regulatory basis this was done, no answer was given. For more than 2 days, IPC representatives kept telling us they were considering where the Ukrainian team would be allowed to hang the flag on the team’s residence building. Eventually, the flag of Ukraine was allowed to be placed in a less visible location.
- Each evening, the team gathers for 10-15 minutes in the common hall of the building we share with other teams for a brief debriefing and planning for the next day. In connection with this, every day representatives of the Organizing Committee and the IPC pressure the team and its members about the inadmissibility of this short gathering, claiming it is prohibited by some unclear document or regulation.
- At the award ceremony for our champion Oleksandra Kononova, an IPC representative aggressively tried to remove small earrings featuring the flag of Ukraine with the inscription “Stop War.” Our champion was forced to remove the earrings without explanation of what danger a woman’s accessory posed to the medal ceremony for a Paralympic champion. Oleksandra Kononova and the entire team remind the International Paralympic Committee that PEACE AND THE LIFE OF EVERY PERSON IS A HUMAN RIGHT! Moreover, Ukrainian athletes ask to remind the IPC leadership that, according to the UN General Assembly Resolution, peace for global humanity is one of the main missions of the IOC and the IPC! Ukrainian athletes also ask — do the leaders of the IPC want themselves and their families to live in peace, without wars?!!
- The national Paralympic team of Ukraine was particularly shocked by the cynical and unlawful conduct of IPC and Organizing Committee representatives towards the family of champion and medalist of the XIV Winter Paralympics, Taras Rad. In light of what happened, we ask the IPC leaders to take into account that the very first day of competition at the 2026 Paralympics was marked by russia committing a horrific bombing of the civilian population of Ukraine, launching nearly 500 drones and 29 ballistic and cruise missiles at Ukraine just before the start of the competition. Thus, at the start of the Paralympic sports competition, the russian Paralympic Committee, together with the russian terrorist army, killed many civilians, women, and children… Overcoming the russian bombings, the Ukrainian family of Paralympian Taras Rad left the Ternopil region to support him in his fight for a victorious Ukrainian result, and perhaps in doing so, saved their lives that day from russia’s missile terror. Taras Rad’s family of eight bought their own tickets and tried to attend the spectator stands for the biathlon competition to see their relative compete for victory. Representatives of the IPC and the Organizing Committee confiscated the champion’s family’s Ukrainian flags, confiscated the women’s headscarves with Ukrainian national ornamentation, and stated that this was done in accordance with IPC rules.
The national Paralympic team of Ukraine is shocked by the unprecedentedly disgraceful conduct of the IPC and its representatives of the Organizing Committee of the 2026 Paralympics!
The national team of Ukraine and the National Paralympic Committee of Ukraine have long noticed an obvious growth in the IPC’s particular favoritism towards the russian and Belarusian Paralympic Committees and their state representation within the international Paralympic movement, as well as a corresponding violation of basic provisions of the IPC Constitution in connection with the restoration of their membership in the IPC.
The National Paralympic Committee of Ukraine demands that the IPC leadership begin the process of returning to the provisions of the IPC Constitution, and in accordance with them, coordinate the activities of the IPC’s executive bodies during the implementation of their functions at the XIV Winter Paralympic Games.
