Ukraine has called through various official channels to “boycott all sporting events with Russian participation.”
This is the core message of a 121-second video that was distributed on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday morning, including via the account of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the accounts of various embassies abroad.
In the video, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is specifically asked what motivated it to recommend the return of athletes from Russia to the world stage at the end of March. The clip shows images of destruction from the war of aggression that Russia has been waging against Ukraine since February 2022. The video is accompanied by dramatic, energetic music.
Ukraine lists that the attack by Russia with the help of its ally Belarus has killed 361 Ukrainian athletes and destroyed 351 sports facilities in the country since the beginning of the war. Russia is using the successes of its athletes on the world stage for propaganda purposes, even without a flag, country name and national anthem.
IOC still undecided
The IOC has not yet decided on the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris; the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has already approved admission under a neutral flag at the end of September.
In mid-October, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) with immediate effect for a “breach of the Olympic Charter”. The ROC had accepted the sports organizations of the annexed Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Luhansk as members and thereby “violated the territorial integrity of the NOC of Ukraine,” it said in the justification. Ukraine then expressed its relief.
Since the IOC recommendation, Ukraine has repeatedly threatened to boycott its own athletes and has at times tried to force them to take this step.
The IOC initially left a request for comment on Saturday’s concerted call to the sports world under the hashtag #BoycottRussianSports unanswered.