IPC Votes to Readmit Russia, Belarus, Drawing Backlash from Ukraine

By Kazunori Hirachi / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

13:24 JST, September 29, 2025

PARIS – The International Paralympic Committee voted on Saturday to no longer bar the national paralympic committees of Russia, which continues to wage war in Ukraine, and its ally Belarus. The vote, which was held at the IPC’s general assembly in Seoul, drew a backlash from Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Ministry and Youth and Sports Ministry issued a joint statement later on Saturday, criticizing the decision as “shameful,” and calling for “the entire sports world” to “demand its reversal.”

The statement argued that Russia has “used sport as a propaganda tool since Soviet times,” and that the IPC decision “effectively encourages Russian aggression, terror, and killings.”

The IPC vote means the athletes from both countries might participate next March in the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games.

Matvii Bidnyi, Ukraine’s minister of youth and sports, said his country’s “decision on whether to participate will be made collectively at a later stage,” according to AFP, leaving open the door to a boycott of the Paralympic Winter Games by Ukraine.

The IPC told The Yomiuri Shimbun after the vote that it would be up to the International Sports Federation bodies for each sport whether to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to join international sports events, including the Paralympics. Attention will likely shift to the decisions of these bodies.