{"id":518743,"date":"2026-02-18T17:41:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T14:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=518743"},"modified":"2026-02-18T19:11:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T16:11:22","slug":"ukrainian-foreign-ministry-criticises-admission-of-belarusian-athletes-to-paralympics-under-state-flag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/ukrainian-foreign-ministry-criticises-admission-of-belarusian-athletes-to-paralympics-under-state-flag","title":{"rendered":"Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Criticises Admission of Belarusian Athletes to Paralympics Under State Flag"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Ministry has described as wrong and shameful the decision to allow Belarusian and Russian athletes to take part in the Paralympic Games under the state flags of their countries.<\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cAllowing the flags of aggressor states to be raised at the Paralympic Games while Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine continues is wrong \u2014 both from a moral and a political standpoint.<br \/>\nThe decision to admit Russia and Belarus under national symbols ignores a simple truth: these flags and anthems represent regimes that wage aggression, destroy cities and use sport as a weapon for propaganda. They cannot be separated from the crimes committed under their flag,\u201d<\/i> Ukrainian Foreign Minister <b>Andrii Sybiha<\/b> said.<\/p>\n<p>Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Ministry noted that in Russia even Paralympic sport is used to glorify participants in the war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cGranting such a system a prestigious international platform sends a dangerous signal that accountability can be pushed into the background,\u201d<\/i> Sybiha stressed.<\/p>\n<p>Sybiha said he had instructed ambassadors to hold talks with officials in their host countries and urge them not to take part in the opening ceremony <i>\u201cif this shameful decision is not reversed.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>It should be recalled that the International Paralympic Committee has allowed athletes from Belarus and Russia to participate in the Winter Paralympic Games under their national flags. Four athletes from Belarus have been authorised to take part.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Ministry has described as wrong and shameful the decision to allow Belarusian and Russian athletes to take part in the Paralympic Games under the state flags of their countries. \u201cAllowing the flags of aggressor states to be raised at the Paralympic Games while Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine continues is wrong \u2014 both from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":518742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/6995e4af70fe8.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Criticises Admission of Belarusian Athletes to Paralympics Under State Flag"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142339,142338],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-518743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","category-news"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}