INTERNATIONAL SPORTS DAY: NO PLACE FOR RUSSIA

On the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, we highlight the devastating impact of Russia’s war on Ukrainian sport.

As of March 2025, at least 591 Ukrain­ian ath­letes and coach­es have been killed by Russ­ian forces. Twen­ty-two remain in cap­tiv­i­ty, and eleven are miss­ing. Russ­ian attacks have dam­aged or destroyed 725 sports facil­i­ties across Ukraine, includ­ing 17 train­ing cen­ters for Olympic, Par­a­lympic, and Deaf­ly­mpic ath­letes.

Rus­sia has long used sport as a pro­pa­gan­da tool. At the 2024 Olympics in Paris, 10 of the 15 Russ­ian ath­letes com­pet­ing under a neu­tral flag had either pub­licly sup­port­ed the war or were affil­i­at­ed with the Russ­ian mil­i­tary. This is not coin­ci­dence: Russ­ian sport is deeply inter­twined with the state and con­tin­ues to serve as a plat­form for jus­ti­fy­ing war and spread­ing state nar­ra­tives.

Calls to “keep pol­i­tics out of sport” ignore the real­i­ty: Rus­sia is already using sport as a polit­i­cal weapon.

While Ukraine con­tin­ues to defend its sov­er­eign­ty and pur­sue peace, Rus­sia keeps launch­ing mis­siles and under­min­ing inter­na­tion­al efforts to end the war. Until Rus­sia ends its aggres­sion, there is no place for it in glob­al sport.

Mean­while, Alexan­der Ovechkin, a long­time Putin sup­port­er, was recent­ly cel­e­brat­ed for break­ing anoth­er NHL goal-scor­ing record. The applause, how­ev­er, rings hol­low. As Ukrain­ian ath­letes are being killed by the army of his beloved pres­i­dent, Ovechkin has shown no remorse, no dis­tanc­ing, no empa­thy. His silence speaks vol­umes. So does the league’s.

There is no place for Rus­sia in inter­na­tion­al sports until it stops its atroc­i­ties against Ukraine.