The Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine and the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine express their sincere condolences to Svitlana Malkova on the death of her mother, Olena Syvanych, as a result of russian missile attacks on civilian targets in peaceful Mykolaiv.
Despite the loss of her mother, Svitlana Malkova, a heroic member of the Ukrainian national trampoline team, continues to participate in the World Cup in Cottbus, Germany, which has the status of a licensed competition for the 2024 Olympic Games.
Representatives of terrorist countries also take part in these competitions. On 7 March 2024, the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the NOC of Ukraine appealed to the IOC and the International Gymnastics Federation, as well as to the German Gymnastics Federation on 14 March 2024, to remove representatives of the russian federation and Belarus from participating in these competitions, even in neutral status. These are Kirill Kozlov, Danil Kazimov, Anzhela Bladtseva, Yana Lebedieva and Ivan Litvinovich, who directly support the war in Ukraine unleashed by russia.
Despite appeals from the Ukrainian side, these athletes were allowed to participate in the World Cup in Cottbus, Germany. As a result, Svitlana Malkova has to compete on the same court as athletes who support the war and, in fact, support the murder of her mother.
The well-known sociological theory of the "five handshakes" proves that russian athletes participating in these competitions are literally a few handshakes away from russian war criminals who directly made the decision to shell and launched the missile that killed the mother of the Ukrainian athlete.
We reiterate that athletes with russian and belarusian citizenship who have not openly condemned russia's aggression against Ukraine are agents of hybrid influence.
Given the current situation, we believe that even the absence of a public position on the war in Ukraine is not a sufficient criterion for obtaining the status of a neutral individual athlete (AIN) by citizens of russia and belarus who intend to participate in international sporting events. Citizenship is a symbol of consent between the state and the citizen, which imposes mutual rights and obligations.
We call for the suspension of athletes who hold russian or belarusian citizenship from participating in any international competitions, including the Olympic Games, in any status.