The Winter Paralympic Games to take place next month in Milano-Cortina will be one of the first major international sports competitions which will allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate under their national flags. However, there are some major caveats.
Since 2023, the ban on both countries following the Russian invasion of Ukraine was partly lifted, and individual athletes from those countries were allowed to participate under neutral flags, and their successes would not count for the official records. In the Winter Paralympics, starting on March 6, there will be six Russian and four Belarusian athletes with bipartite invites, meaning that they will be allowed to represent their countries' symbols including their flags, but won't be representing their international federation.
Ukraine sports minister Matvii Bidnyi has said on Wednesday that Ukrainian public officials will not attend the Paralympic Games or any official events, although the Ukrainian athletes will participate in the Paralympic Games (via BBC Sport). "We thank every official from the free world who will do the same. We will keep fighting!", said Bidnyi.
The decision to lift the ban was made by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in September, and despite governing bodies from the individual sports that make up the Games refused to lift their ban, Russia and Belarus won an appeal to the Court of Arbitration of Sport, which granted them these bipartite invites.