The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) confirmed Tuesday that Russia's National Paralympic Committee received six athlete slots and Belarus four slots for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympics, beginning March 6. Russian athletes will compete under the Russian flag and anthem, while Belarusian athletes will compete under the Belarusian flag — the first time Russia has competed under its own flag at the Paralympics since the 2014 Sochi Games.
The path to this outcome involved multiple governance layers. The IPC voted in September 2025 to lift partial suspensions on both countries. However, individual sport federations — including the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) — maintained their own bans. Russia and Belarus then appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in December 2025, which overturned FIS's blanket ban. This allowed athletes to receive bipartite commission invitations for Paralympic disciplines.
This differs from the current Olympic arrangement: Russian and Belarusian athletes at the ongoing 2026 Winter Olympics compete as individual neutral athletes without national symbols, as their Olympic committees remain sanctioned by the IOC. Russia's original ban from Paralympics stemmed from a state-sponsored doping scandal revealed in 2016, with further sanctions added after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine's Minister of Youth and Sports Matvii Bidnyi announced Wednesday that Ukrainian officials will not attend the opening ceremony or any Paralympic events, though Ukrainian athletes will still compete. EU Commissioner for Sport Glenn Micallef and UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy also criticized the decision. IPC President Andrew Parsons had previously stated there was now 'less evidence' of the games being used to promote the war.