Ukraine has voiced outrage over a decision from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to bar their skeleton slider Vladyslav Heraskevych from competing at the Milan/Cortina Games over a helmet dispute.

The Ukrainian luge relay team showed solidarity with skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych, barred from competing for wearing a helmet honoring Ukrainian athletes killed in the conflict with Russia.

Olympic skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych has returned home to Ukraine and shared plans to raise funds for the families of the athletes and coaches depicted on the helmet that got him disqualified from the Milan Cortina Games.

Ukrainian businessman Rinat Akhmetov — the owner of the Shakhtar Donetsk soccer club and the Azovstal steel works in Mariupol — gave the money to Heraskevych from his charity foundation. The amount is equal to what the country’s Olympic gold medalists would get.

Heraskevych will no longer compete in Milan after the IOC announced his disqualification.

Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina for wearing a memorial helmet honoring Ukrainian athletes and coaches killed since the Russian invasion

Vladyslav Heraskevych's "helmet of remembrance" was banned by the IOC, with the Ukrainian losing a subsequent appeal to CAS.

The International Olympic Committee said that the helmet wouldn’t be allowed in competition, citing a rule against making political statements

Ukraine said Wednesday that its officials will not attend the Winter Paralympics next month over the decision by organizers to allow a handful of Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their

MILAN (AP) — Anastasia Kucherova, a Russian living in Milan, voiced her opposition to Russia’s war against Ukraine with a highly symbolic, if at first anonymous, act: Carrying the Ukraine team placard during the opening ceremony of the Milan Cortina Winter Games.

The 27-year-old, who had been training in Italy with the helmet showing two dozen dead compatriots, was barred and stripped of his accreditation minutes before the competition.

The Winter Paralympics celebrate its 50th anniversary at Milan Cortina, where Ukraine is expected to boycott the opening ceremony as the Russian flag and national anthem make a return to the global sports stage.