The opening ceremony of the XIV Winter Paralympic Games in Milan will be boycotted by 11 countries and the European Union. The reason is that the International Olympic Committee allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their flags and anthems.
This was reported by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andriy Sybiha.
In addition to Ukraine, the following countries joined the boycott: Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Finland, Croatia, and the Czech Republic.
The opening ceremony will take place on March 6. The competition will continue until March 15.
What preceded
Russia and Belarus were suspended from the Paralympic Games after Russiaʼs invasion of Ukraine in 2022. A partial ban was introduced in 2023, allowing athletes to compete in neutral status.
In September 2025, the International Paralympic Committee lifted its ban on athletes from Russia and Belarus from the Games. However, the four international federations responsible for all six sports at the Winter Paralympics have decided to maintain their restrictions.
But in December, Russia and Belarus won an appeal against the International Ski and Snowboard Federation at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, allowing their athletes to compete and earn ranking points.
On February 18, it was reported that six Russian and four Belarusian athletes had been invited to the Games and would be allowed to compete under their respective national flags.
This would be the first time that the Russian flag had flown at a Paralympic Games since Sochi 2014, when it was banned due to the countryʼs state-sponsored doping program and then Russiaʼs invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
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