PARIS – On July 13, several hundred people gathered in central Paris to honor Ukrainian athletes who died in the war against Russia before having the chance to compete in the upcoming Paris Olympics. The marchers waved flags and wore T-shirts bearing images of top athletes killed in the conflict, while calling for the exclusion of Russian and Belarussian competitors from the Games, which are set to open on July 26.
“It will be very difficult for us to see a certain number of Russian and Belarussian athletes who, more or less openly, support the Putin regime, even if their flag will be white,” stated Mr. Volodymyr Kogutyak, vice-president of the Union of Ukrainians in France. “And this is the saddest thing for us,” he told AFP. “That Ukrainian athletes who built a career in sports have died, and cannot come to these Olympic Games. And at the same time, some of those who support the murderers will participate.”
Organizers of the march highlighted that approximately 450 top Ukrainian athletes have perished on the battlefield since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. Among them was Maksym Halinichev, a boxer and silver medalist at the 2018 Youth Olympics, who joined the Ukrainian army and died on the front line in 2023. Other notable athletes who have died include shooters Ivan Bidnyak and Yehor Kihitov, judo champion Stanislav Hulenkov, weightlifter Oleksandr Pielieshenko, and gymnastics coach Anastasia Ihnatenko, who was killed by a Russian missile along with her husband and 18-month-old child.
“We want the world to understand that Russia is a terrorist,” said Ms. Olga Krushkovska, a 33-year-old Ukrainian architect and artist residing in France. “The situation is very painful for me, for my children, for my family, and our country,” she told AFP during the march. “We want the world to boycott anything to do with Russia, especially for the Olympic Games.”
Mr. Roman Tyshchenko, a 28-year-old who recently earned his master’s degree, expressed his anger at the loss of Ukrainian athletes but emphasized that his anger extends to all who have died in the conflict. “I’m just angry that people are dying and I feel like people abroad do not always understand that the war is still happening,” he said.
Ukraine is expected to send over 100 athletes to the Paris Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decreed that Russian and Belarussian athletes cannot compete under their national flags, but may participate as individual neutral athletes.