Sport must not reward aggression

The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) commends the countries, sporting bodies, athletes and sponsors standing firm against the return of Russian national teams to international sport, including the Government of Canada and the national hockey organizations of Czechia, Finland, Latvia and Sweden. Whether by barring Russian and Belarusian teams from competing under their national symbols at events they host, or by opposing their reinstatement to international competition, they have refused to normalize Russia’s war.
They have made the morally right decision.

There can be no return to “business as usual” with the Russian state while it wages an illegal and inhumane war against Ukraine. Russian missiles and drones continue to kill and maim civilians and destroy homes and critical civilian infrastructure.

Allowing Russian national teams to represent the Russian state on the world stage would not be neutrality. It would be morally reprehensible. It would reward aggression, normalize Russia’s crimes and hand the Kremlin a propaganda victory.

The UWC is deeply concerned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling overturning the exclusion of Russian national ice hockey teams. The full reasoned decision must be made public and rigorously scrutinized. The UWC calls on the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) to pursue every available avenue to challenge it before the Swiss Federal Tribunal, including on grounds of Swiss public policy.

Sport does not exist in a moral vacuum. Russia has long exploited international sport for state prestige and propaganda, and that is exactly the legitimacy it seeks now.
UWC President Paul Grod said: “These countries and organizations have chosen principle over convenience, and we applaud them. Ukrainians are being killed in their homes by Russian missiles and drones. A country cannot wage a criminal war, murder and terrorize civilians, and then expect its flag and national teams to be welcomed on the world stage as though nothing is happening. That is not neutrality. It is normalization of aggression, and it makes a mockery of justice.”

The UWC calls on all democratic governments, sporting federations, national Olympic committees, athletes, sponsors and broadcasters to join them. Federations must also ensure that decisions on the national teams of aggressor states do not turn narrowly on event security while ignoring state aggression, violations of international law and the misuse of sport for propaganda.

Do not reward aggression. Do not normalize Russia’s crimes. Do not let international sport rehabilitate the Russian state.

Until Russia ends its aggression and is held accountable for its crimes, Russian national teams and state symbols have no place in international sport.