No Neutral Ground: Why allowing Russians and Belarusians compete under their flags is unacceptable
- DeTalks
- 16 годин тому
- Читати 10 хв
Authors: Andrii Nikitonok, Viktoriia Hvozd, українська версія тут.
A DeTalks investigation into young athletes from Russia and Belarus. Part 1.
Volodymyr Moseychuk, a footballer for the amateur club "Temp United", lost his life due to a rocket attack on Kyiv. Vitaliy Vankevych, a coach at Sheptytska Children's and Youth Sports School No. 2, died on the front line. Vitaliy Rymaruk, a Ukrainian champion in athletics, made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. Mykola Khudevych, the president of the "Revera" futsal club, was killed in the battle against Russian invaders. Mykyta Kozubenko, a master of sports in diving, died while defending Ukraine. Danylo Skadin, a candidate for a master of sports degree in kettlebell lifting, perished during rescue operations as part of the State Emergency Service.
These are not just names; they represent the stories of Ukrainian athletes, coaches, and sports club managers who lost their lives in June 2025 due to the war instigated by Russia in February 2022. In that same month, three sports facilities in Ukraine were damaged: the Igor Sikorsky KPI sports complex, the "Spartak" stadium in Kyiv, and the ice arena in Dnipro. Additionally, the training facility for the Ukrainian national athletics team was also affected ahead of the national championships.
The KPI sports complex and Spartak Stadium after bombing. Photo: t.me/manziukpyshe, facebook.com/YULIA0017/
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, the country has lost more than 595 athletes, coaches, and youth leaders since the onset of the full-scale invasion. Additionally, 734 sports facilities have been damaged or destroyed, including 18 national Olympic and Paralympic training centres. This destruction occurs while Russian and Belarusian athletes continue to compete on the international stage, either under their flags or as “neutral” participants. Many of these athletes still train in Russia or Belarus, or have changed their citizenship.
In response, the youth online media “DeTalks” has launched a special project titled “No Neutral Ground”. This initiative aims to raise awareness about the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in international sports. The project seeks to demonstrate why athletes who have not severed ties with Russia or Belarus should not be permitted to compete under the flags of other countries or labelled as “neutral”.
What’s wrong with young athletes from Russia and Belarus
According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Declaration against the politicisation of sport, the main principle is to keep “sports out of politics”. However, DeTalks challenges this notion for several reasons.
Financial support for war: The families of athletes from Russia and Belarus contribute to the war effort through their taxes. These funds directly support the aggressor countries' budgets, which finance military equipment, soldiers' salaries, and missile strikes on Ukrainian cities.
State legitimacy: By competing on international platforms under the flags of Russia and Belarus, athletes effectively legitimise and glorify their nations. They receive official recognition, awards, and prizes from regimes that are actively waging war.
Propaganda through victories: Moscow and Minsk utilise sporting achievements to promote pseudo-patriotism and justify their aggressive policies.
Support for aggression: Public endorsement of government actions that result in the killing of Ukrainians makes any notion of neutrality impossible.
Integration with state systems: Many athletes from Russia and Belarus affiliate with clubs or federations that operate under the auspices of the ministries of defence or internal affairs, which means they are effectively connected to the security forces.
In this special project, DeTalks will focus not on adult athletes — whose political views are often formed and highly visible — but on young people, including teenagers and juniors. Their participation in international tournaments may seem "innocent" or unrelated to politics. However, youth sports serve as a training ground for personnel who are later co-opted by political regimes for their propaganda purposes.
While Russian teenagers compete in Europe and around the world, at least 13 young athletes have already died from Russian shelling in Ukraine, with many more wounded. As young Russians strive for medals in arenas, Ukrainian children are forced to train in bomb shelters and often struggle to sleep at night due to air raid sirens.
This investigation intends to demonstrate why the involvement of even the youngest Russian and Belarusian athletes in international competitions is not an apolitical issue. Instead, it is part of a larger state apparatus that utilises the same budgets that fund missiles.
Russians and Belarusians under their flags: examples
National symbols of aggressor countries are allowed at several international youth tournaments, primarily in sports such as boxing (for Russia and Belarus), judo, and soccer (for Belarus only). In some other sports, athletes from these countries also compete under their flags in commercial events not governed by international federations. However, this article will focus on three main disciplines: boxing, judo, and football.
Boxing
For instance, the World Junior and Youth Boxing Championships are organised by the International Boxing Association (IBA). Since 2020, the IBA has been led by Russian sports official Umar Kremlev, who previously served as the secretary general of the Russian Boxing Federation for over four years. Although he was supposed to be re-elected in 2022, the association's members voted against holding elections, effectively allowing Kremlev to remain in office without an alternative.
Kremlev himself has frequently received awards directly from Vladimir Putin. He moved most of the association's activities from Switzerland to Russia and signed a contract that designated Gazprom as the sole sponsor of the International Boxing Association (IBA). This decision has faced ongoing criticism from the International Olympic Committee, but their efforts have not yielded any results.
On October 5, 2022 — less than seven months after Russia began its full-scale war against Ukraine — the International Boxing Association (IBA) allowed Russian and Belarusian teams to compete under their national flags. The organisation stated that “politics shouldn’t have any influence on sports, […] and all athletes should be given equal conditions”.
In the most recent World Junior and Youth Boxing Championships, the Russian team finished third in the overall medal standings, winning five gold, two silver, and one bronze medal. Meanwhile, there were also “neutral athletes” participating in the championship separately; these athletes chose “not to have anything to do with any national federation”.
However, let us focus on the official Russian team. Its captain, Vyacheslav Rogozin, was congratulated on his victory by the Russian Boxing Federation. Rogozin himself openly posts geotags of his trips on his Instagram page — Kabardino-Balkaria, Yaroslavl, Krasnodar, Prielbrusye.
Photo: Screenshots from Instagram. Click on the arrow to scroll through.
While Rogozin seldom captions his photos, another 2024 world champion from the same team, Platon Kozlov, actively uses hashtags like “#RussianBoxingFederation”, “#russianboxing”, and “#boxingforstrongRussia”. He also posts greetings for Russia Day and shares photos from training sessions where he poses in a uniform adorned with the Russian tricolour and the double-headed eagle coat of arms, clearly expressing his pride in representing these national symbols.
Photo: Screenshots from t.me/platonboxingg
Another world championship medalist, Ruslan Shikhmambetov, prepared for the competition in Montenegro not anywhere else, but in Russian-occupied Simferopol. The Legion Boxing Club, where the boxer trains, actively publishes videos of the athlete's training sessions, accompanying them with hashtags such as “#Crimea” and “#boxinginsimferopol”, once again emphasising Russia's presence on Ukrainian territory.
Judo
In the case of the International Judo Federation (IJF), there is no direct Russian connection, as in the IBA. The IJF president, Austrian Marius Wieser, has headed the organisation since 2007. Moreover, after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he “temporarily suspended” Vladimir Putin's status as Honorary President and removed Russian oligarch Arkady Rotenberg from his leadership position. Since then, there have been no representatives of the aggressor countries in either the IJF praesidium or other governing bodies.
Despite this, the International Judo Federation's (IJF) standpoint on the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in international competitions has been controversial and inconsistent. Shortly after the onset of the full-scale invasion, the organisation announced that athletes from these countries would be allowed to compete. However, two weeks later, it decided to suspend their participation.
In June 2022, the IJF permitted Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under a “neutral” flag, which led Ukraine to boycott all IJF tournaments until these athletes were banned. In September of the same year, the federation temporarily suspended their participation again, this time until the end of 2022. Yet, in April 2023, the IJF reversed its decision and allowed them back into international competitions under a neutral flag.
The situation worsened for Ukraine when, two years later, the IJF permitted athletes from Belarus to compete under their national flag.
“We are committed to ensuring that sport serves as a platform for dialogue, unity, and understanding — building bridges, not walls”, the IJF stated.
In response, Ukraine reiterated its boycott of all tournaments featuring Russian or Belarusian athletes representing their national teams, as mandated by the Ministry of Youth and Sports. However, the IJF did not address this concern; it simply confirmed in a letter to the Ukrainian federation that Belarusian athletes have the right to represent their country at international competitions.
The Senior 2025 World Championship took place from June 13 to 20 in Budapest, where Belarus was represented by two athletes. At the World Cadet Championships in Skopje on June 26, the Belarusian team consisted of 12 athletes. Notably, the Belarusians won a bronze medal in the mixed team tournament, having lost in the semifinals to what the Belarusian Judo Federation referred to as the “friendly IJF team (Russia)”.
According to the Belarusian Judo Federation website, it was this organisation that officially formed and sent the team to the European Championships, specifying the names of the athletes and their weight categories. The same pages of the federation's website feature profiles of Belarusian judokas, revealing details of their training. Let us get a closer look at the performances as they navigate the competitive landscape leading up to the European Championships.
For instance, four members of the national team — Alisia Zharska, Roman Kuznetsov, Sofya Lisovskaya, and Gleb Kondratovich — participated in the All-Russian Fedorov Memorial Competition in Chelyabinsk before the continental tournament. Zharska, in particular, won a bronze medal in the 52 kg category.
Other team members — Sofia Minko, Varvara Krasko, Sofya Yarmontovich, Arseniy Kirilov, and Daniil Lukashevich — competed in the St. Petersburg Governor's Cup about two months before the European Championships, where Kuznetsov won bronze in the 60 kg weight class.
It is noteworthy that the governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Beglov, openly supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine, emphasising that “helping the military and their families has been St. Petersburg's main task since the first days of the special operation”. He also personally visited Mariupol, which was previously destroyed by Russian troops and is referred to in Russia as “St. Petersburg's sister city”.
However, these competitions were not the only ones where Belarusian judokas prepared for international competitions alongside Russians. In May, another tournament was held in Tula — an all-Russian competition dedicated to the 80th anniversary of victory in World War II, organised by the Ministry of Sports and the Olympic Committee of Russia. There, Belarusian Nadezhda Zhukovich won gold in the women's 48 kg category.
Футбол
On February 28, 2022, FIFA and UEFA jointly announced the suspension of Russian national teams and clubs from all tournaments under their auspices — a response to the full-scale aggression against Ukraine. Belarusian football also came under sanctions, but avoided complete exclusion: the country was banned from hosting international matches on its territory, and local clubs were spread across the European cup grid so that they would not meet Ukrainian teams.
Despite this, Belarusian teams played in qualifying tournaments — the senior team participated in the Euro 2024 qualifiers, and the U21 youth team competed for a spot at the 2025 European Championship. Let us have a closer look at the latter.
According to the analytical platform Transfermarkt, the Belarusian youth team (U21) consists of 31 players. The vast majority of them — 23 players — play in the Belarusian domestic championship, five more represent Russian clubs, and three play in Moldova, Serbia, and Portugal.
According to Transfermarkt, the most valuable players are the Belarusians from Russian clubs: Artem Shumansky from Moscow's “CSKA” and Yegor Karpitsky from Samara's “Krylia Sovetov”.
In addition to playing for the youth team, Shumansky has already made his debut for the Belarusian national team, participating in three matches. In June, for example, he played in a friendly game against Russia in Minsk. Karpitsky, the top scorer for his national team, spent this season on loan at Saratov, where he played 27 matches in the Russian First League, scoring two goals and providing one assist.
Even though the leaders of the Belarusian youth team compete in the Russian championship and even play matches against a country suspended by FIFA and UEFA, international football organisations do not take this into account. Furthermore, in the spring of 2025, the president of the International Football Federation (FIFA), Gianni Infantino, expressed his hope for Russia's return to world football following a “peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine”.
“Peace talks are currently underway in Ukraine” Infantino said. “I hope that we will soon be able to move on to the next stage and bring Russia back to the football arena, because that will mean everything has been resolved”.
“We must always strive to use football to bring people together and unite countries, especially in our divided world”, Infantino added.
Despite various sanctions, suspensions, and statements from sports organisations, Russian and Belarusian athletes continue to compete on the world stage — often displaying national symbols and training or competing together.
Sport serves as a platform that showcases connections extending far beyond stadiums and rings. The extent to which these activities align with the IOC's Declaration against the politicisation of sport remains an open question.
The DeTalks editorial team will continue its investigation in the upcoming parts of this "No Neutral Ground" special project.
