Dhe Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, warns of violent clashes if athletes from Ukraine meet athletes from Russia and Belarus. “Joint participation in international sports competitions by Ukrainian athletes, many of whom lost family members and friends in the war, and Russian and Belarusian athletes whose family members kill Ukrainians, will lead to numerous conflicts on sports fields, resulting in injuries and even deaths among athletes This can have consequences,” says an appeal that the members of the Sports Committee of the German Bundestag received from the Federal Foreign Office on Wednesday – just on the day of their public meeting on “Integrity and Good Governance in Sport”.
Last weekend, the World Fencing Federation FIE decided to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus again; the German association does not distance itself from the decision and did not say how its president Claudia Bokel voted.
The letter from the Ukrainian MPs goes on to say: “Duels on fencing lanes and wrestling mats are particularly dangerous, but also in the areas of firearms and archery. Also in the Olympic villages there will be tension, possible disputes and fights between athletes and the organizers of the competitions.”
Kyiv wants to prevent “neutral athletes”.
In the appeal, the deputies from Kiev are turning to the federal government and asking that athletes from Russia and Belarus be prevented from participating in international competitions, as the World Boxing and Fencing Federations recently allowed by demanding their exclusion because of the war of aggression Russian army against Ukraine lifted. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is aiming for athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate as so-called neutral athletes at next year’s Summer Games in Paris.
Back in January, after the IOC called on the top sporting associations to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in Olympic qualifications, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser clearly criticized these plans. Opening the door again for Russian athletes is completely the wrong way, she told the FAZ: “Sport should be clear in its condemnation of the brutal war that Putin is waging against the Ukrainian civilian population.”
The letter from Kiev, which the Federal Foreign Office received on March 3 with a request to forward it to parliament and the German Olympic Sports Confederation, goes on to say that it is inconceivable that Ukrainian athletes could be on the podium alongside Russian and Belarusian athletes stand that representatives of the Russian Federation or Belarus evaluate competitions in which Ukrainian athletes participate.
More than 220 Ukrainian athletes killed in the war
The Verkhovna Rada considers that allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes at a time when the Russian Federation’s war to annihilate the Ukrainian people and state is ongoing constitutes blatant support for the war and an attempt to appease the aggressor. The letter said: “The proposals are an insult to the memory of the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens, including more than 220 Ukrainian athletes, who selflessly defended their homeland and lost their lives fighting for its future as a democratic European state.”
According to the Ukrainian parliament, Russian aggression has led to massive destruction of Ukraine’s sports infrastructure. More than 320 sports facilities were damaged, 87 were completely or partially destroyed. The damage amounts to more than 230 million euros.
“With the start of the large-scale Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, the slogan ‘sport outside politics’ lost its raison d’être,” write the Ukrainian deputies Ukraine – the violence, murder and genocide of the Ukrainian people – by openly participating in Z-parades or tacitly supporting this fiercest war without having civil courage or taking a conscious position of their own in condemning this war. ’ Russia and Belarus used athletes as an ideological weapon ‘to carry out their nefarious propaganda and boost the fighting spirit of the Russian army and the zombified Russian people, and to influence the decisions of other states, leading to support for Ukraine in the fight for their Freedom and Independence and their Ents decision for Europe”.