Injured Russian soldiers can compete at future Paralympics, says IPC boss

The blanket ban imposed on Russian and Belarusian athletes in 2022 was reduced to a partial ban in 2023, allowing athletes from the two nations to compete as neutrals at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.

In September 2025, the IPC lifted that ban entirely but the four individual governing bodies in charge of the six sports contested at the Winter Paralympics decided to keep their bans in place.

In December, Russia and Belarus won an appeal against FIS - the governing body for skiing and snowboarding - at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), permitting their athletes in those sports to compete and accumulate ranking points.

As a result, 10 athletes were then awarded bipartite commission invitations to compete at the Winter Paralympics.

Bipartite commission invites are granted to individual athletes, rather than their international federation, and allow the participation of top athletes "who may not have had the opportunity to qualify through other methods due to extraordinary circumstances", among other factors.

Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky called the decision "awful" while the country's sports minister Matvii Bidnyi said it was "both disappointing and outrageous".

"The general assembly lifted the suspension in September so we need to respect the democracy of our movement. The majority voted that way, so we need to implement their decision," said Parsons.

"But I fully understand the disappointment, I understand the different opinions, and especially [those] coming from Ukraine."

Asked what he would say to Ukrainian athletes, he said: "My message to them is that the best way to show the strength of Ukraine is on the field of play, by winning medals and by making sure their national anthem is played as many times as possible on Italian soil."

In addition to Ukraine, teams from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are boycotting Friday's opening ceremony in Verona in protest against the decision.

Officials from other nations, including the British government, will not attend for the same reason.

The Great Britain team will also not go to the Verona ceremony, but for logistical reasons - a decision that was made some time ago.

Many of the 25-strong British squad - including flagbearers Menna Fitzpatrick and Scott Meenagh - are in competitive action on Saturday morning, several hours' drive from Verona.

Athletes from Belarus are expected to be in attendance at the opening ceremony, but at the time of BBC Sport's interview with Parsons, no Russians were due to attend.

"Different countries, National Paralympic Committees, governments, athletes, they have been able to express their views freely, and that's what we stand for as a democratic organisation," said Parsons.

"We would like the focus to be more on sport rather than politics and this is what we are trying to do."