{"id":545755,"date":"2026-05-26T22:56:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T19:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=545755"},"modified":"2026-05-27T07:21:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T04:21:26","slug":"kyiv-condemns-decision-by-gymnastics-federations-to-allow-belarusians-and-russians-to-compete-under-national-flags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/kyiv-condemns-decision-by-gymnastics-federations-to-allow-belarusians-and-russians-to-compete-under-national-flags","title":{"rendered":"Kyiv Condemns Decision by Gymnastics Federations to Allow Belarusians and Russians to Compete Under National Flags"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Ukrainian Foreign Minister <b>Andrii Sybiha<\/b> and Minister of Youth and Sports <b>Matvii Bidnyi<\/b> issued a joint statement condemning the decision of the <a href=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/international-gymnastics-federation-lifts-all-restrictions-on-belarusian-athletes\">International<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/european-gymnastics-federation-allows-belarusians-and-russians-to-compete-without-restrictions\">European<\/a> gymnastics federations to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate in international competitions under national symbols.<\/p>\n<p>The authors of the statement said such steps <i>\u201ccontradict the fundamental principles of justice, solidarity, and peace on which international sport should be based.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cNothing has changed: Russia continues its illegal and unprovoked aggression against Ukraine, killing civilians every day and destroying Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure. As a result of Russia\u2019s war, 852 sports infrastructure facilities in Ukraine have already been destroyed or damaged, including sports schools, gyms, stadiums, and athlete training centers.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Ukrainian athletes continue to train under constant danger, air raid alerts, shelling, and limited access to sports infrastructure. Many athletes have been forced to leave their homes and have lost the opportunity for \u043f\u043e\u043b\u043d\u043e\u0446\u0435\u043d\u043d\u0430\u044f preparation,\u201d<\/i> they stressed.<\/p>\n<p>Kyiv called the lifting of restrictions on Belarusian and Russian gymnasts a false signal of a \u201cnormalization\u201d of the situation and urged the General Assembly, the international sports community, and national federations not to support the decision.<\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cSport cannot be a platform for legitimizing aggressor states and their propaganda,\u201d<\/i> the statement, <a href=\"https:\/\/mfa.gov.ua\/news\/spilna-zayava-andriya-sibigi-ta-matviya-bidnogo-shchodo-rishennya-mizhnarodnoyi-ta-yevropejskoyi-federacij-gimnastiki-pro-dopusk-sportsmeniv-rf-ta-bilorusi\">published<\/a> on the website of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Minister of Youth and Sports Matvii Bidnyi issued a joint statement condemning the decision of the International and European gymnastics federations to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate in international competitions under national symbols. The authors of the statement said such steps \u201ccontradict the fundamental principles of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":501744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6a167149dfe94.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Kyiv Condemns Decision by Gymnastics Federations to Allow Belarusians and Russians to Compete Under National Flags"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142339,142338,143090],"tags":[143118,143122,143123],"class_list":["post-545755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","category-news","category-politics","tag-belarus","tag-rossija","tag-ukraina"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545755","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}