Ukraine insists on a complete sanctions ban on athletes and sports officials from russia and belarus. Their participation in international competitions, even under neutral flags, is unacceptable. This was stated by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Vadym Huttsait, during the Summit of Ministers of Sports, held in the format of a video conference with the participation of representatives of Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Romania, Japan, Norway, Germany, Sweden, Finland, the USA, Italy and other countries.

"Both russians and belarusians have no place next to representatives of the civilized world - neither in sports arenas, nor in sports organizations, nor in the decision-making process. Ukraine insists on a full sanation ban," Vadym Huttsait wrote following the results of the summit.

He emphasized: By their silence, russian and belarusian athletes support the war in Ukraine, which has already killed more than 80 Ukrainian athletes and coaches, destroyed more than 100 sports infrastructure facilities.

The Minister condemned the attempts of individual sports federations to return russians to international competitions, in particular in judo, bobsleigh, and skeleton. Ukraine, like all civilized states, considers this unacceptable. "It is necessary to prohibit russians and belarusians from competing under neutral flags," the Minister said.

It hosuld be noted, thanks to the close cooperation of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine with the Office of the President and international partners, it was possible to introduce more than 125 sanctions against representatives and functionaries of russian and belarusian sports. Sanction restrictions are aimed at excluding the russian federation and the republic of belarus from international sports organizations, depriving their athletes of the right to participate in international competitions, as well as depriving them of the right to hold international competitions on the territory of these countries.