Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine Matvii Bidnyi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha and President of the Ukrainian Chess Federation Oleksandr Kamyshin signed a letter to the International Chess Federation (FIDE). They call on FIDE to maintain the suspension and not to restore the rights of the Russian and Belarusian chess federations.
Ukrainian officials expressed deep concern over the plans of FIDE to consider this issue at the General Assembly on September 21-22, 2024 in Budapest, Hungary.
In the letter, they remind that Russia has been waging a hybrid war against Ukraine for over a decade. The full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, in which Belarus was complicit, was the bloodiest war in Europe since World War II.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has killed more than 500 athletes and coaches, including 21 chess players. Two more chess players are still missing.
Ukrainian officials emphasise that Russian and Belarusian sports organizations are an instrument of state policy in these countries.
“Allowing them back would mean legitimising wars their nations wage,” the letter says.
Ukraine insists that athletes from Russia and Belarus should be banned from participating in the international sports movement.
As long as Russian troops, with the support of Belarus, conduct their brutal war against the Ukrainian реорІе, the ban оn the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes must bе upheld.
Ukraine calls on FIDE to maintain the suspension of athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international competitions.