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Ukraine’s Winter Paralympics team will boycott the event’s opening ceremony next month after Russian and Belarusian athletes were invited to compete under their national flags.<\/b><\/p>\n
On Tuesday, it was announced six Russian and four Belarusian athletes will take part<\/a> in alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and snowboarding at the Milan-Cortina Games, which start on 6 March.<\/p>\n Both countries had previously been suspended from Paralympic competition after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with Belarus an ally of Russia.<\/p>\n In September, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) lifted its ban on athletes from the two countries competing at the Games.<\/p>\n However, the IPC does not govern the six sports contested at the Paralympics and despite the individual bodies, including the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), refusing to lift their own bans, Russia and Belarus won an appeal to the Court of Arbitration of Sport against FIS.<\/p>\n As a result, athletes have been able to return to FIS competitions and the 10 Paralympians have been awarded bipartite commission invitations to compete in Italy.<\/p>\n