Unfortunately, I was unpleasantly surprised that the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus will be represented by a considerable number of athletes in the upcoming Cadets & Youth & Juniors World SAMBO Championships 2024 will take place from October 10 to 14, 2024, in Larnaca.

The fact of possible participation of athletes from nations engaged in the military aggression against Ukraine is causing growing concern and indignation, particularly among the Ukrainian Diaspora in Cyprus.

The Russian Federation has been waging a terroristic war against Ukraine for more than a decade, culminating in a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, which continues to this day and has become the bloodiest war in Europe since World War II.

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale military aggression, the Ukrainian sports community has lost more than 500 athletes and coaches and two more are missing.

More than 500 sports infrastructure facilities have been destroyed or damaged, including 15 Olympic, Paralympic, and Deaflympic training bases.

We would like to emphasize once again that Russian and Belarusian sports communities are instruments of Russian and Belarusian state policies and propaganda.

We strongly believe that athletes with Russian and Belarusian citizenship have no place in the international sports movement, as there is no place for countries that wage aggressive imperialistic wars among peaceful nations.

Allowing their participation would mean legitimizing wars their nations wage.

We do insist that the national teams of neither the Russian Federation nor the Republic of Belarus have the right to participate in international competitions under the auspices of the International SAMBO Federation (FIAS) and their athletes have the right to participate in FIAS tournaments only in a neutral status under the IOC recommendations.

As long as Russian troops, with the support of the Belarusian government, conduct their brutal war against the Ukrainian people, the ban on the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in any international competitions must be upheld.

The flags carried by Russian and Belarusian athletes are “stained with blood” due to the crimes of their countries against the Ukrainian people. Allowing athletes from these countries to compete undermines the integrity of sports, especially given their governments' roles in the terroristic war against Ukraine and also is tacit approval of their nations' military aggression.

We urge the Cyprus SAMBO Federation to reconsider its stance and ban the participation of athletes from the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus from participating in the Championships.