Rostyslav Averchuk
Lviv (Ukraine) (EFE).- A series of deaths on the Ukrainian front in the last week brings the balance of deceased athletes to 287 since the start of the Russian invasion, in February 2022, while some 400 stadiums and other facilities sports were damaged or destroyed by the war.
Ukrainian championship karate silver medalist Mykola Yaremchuk, 22, was killed in combat near Bakhmut, the country’s sports ministry said on Saturday. He had enlisted in the army as a volunteer after his older brother had enlisted.
Early last week, the relevant federations reported the deaths of Oleksandr Dykyi, 42, a multiple Ukrainian rowing medalist and participant in international competitions, and Ruslan Piskovyi, 21, a finalist in world kick-boxing championships. .
Their names join the long list of high-level athletes and coaches killed in the Russian invasion. On Tuesday, the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Andriy Chesnokov, raised the death toll to 287, in a public intervention about the exclusion of athletes from Russia and Belarus from the Olympic Games.
“Many Ukrainian athletes have enlisted as volunteers,” Illia Shevliak, president of the Ukrainian Sports Committee, explained to Efe.
An initiative collects their stories so they are not forgotten
The initiative of the Committee “Angels of Sport” (“Yangoly Sportu” in Ukrainian) has collected the stories of more than 200 dead athletes to preserve their memory and gather evidence of Russian actions in Ukraine.
His memorial, dedicated to the murdered athletes, is now on display in kyiv, with the shoes some of them wore displayed in front of photos of the victims.
Some of the athletes, as well as their families, were killed in Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities. The youngest is Kateryna Diachenko, an 11-year-old rhythmic gymnast.
He died last spring in Mariupol, along with his father. His house was hit by a Russian bomb. His brother and his mother were also killed when another bomb hit the hospital where they were being treated.
“I was destined to conquer the stage and bring smiles to the world. What are children guilty of? ”, Wrote his coach in the“ Sport Angels ”project.
The mother of high jumper Kateryna Tabashyk was killed in a missile attack in Kharkiv last August.
“Every day seems like August 18,” Tabashnyk told Ukrainian television, explaining that he was unable to train for a month and a half after the tragedy. In March, he dedicated his newly won bronze medal at the European Athletics Indoor Championships to his mother.
Shevliak hopes to present the exhibition and the stories of athletes killed abroad: “The world has to know the cost of the Russian invasion for Ukrainian society,” he says.
No facilities to train
He also recalls the very difficult situation that Ukrainian athletes are going through. According to the “Sport Map” drawn up by the Committee, more than 400 stadiums, training grounds and other important sports objects have been damaged or completely destroyed.
Most of them were located in Donbas, in the east, and in cities like Chernigiv, Mykolaiv and Kharkov, heavily bombed by Russia.
Even in such circumstances, with many athletes who can only train abroad or who are fighting at the front lines, Ukraine has achieved good results on the international scene, Shevliak said.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommendation to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete internationally, with the approval of international sports federations, dealt an additional blow to Ukrainian athletes.
“The IOC says that it cares about the rights of Russian and Belarusian athletes. But what about the rights of Ukrainians? How can they share the same space with representatives of the regime that continues to commit atrocities and kill Ukrainians?” Shevliak stressed to Efe.
Replacing the Russian or Belarusian flag with a “neutral” one would not change the fact that they would continue to represent these countries, says the Ukrainian sports director.
“Most of the Russian athletes belong to the structures of the army, which are directly responsible for the murders and destruction in Ukraine,” continues Shevliak, for whom sport has always been a tool of influence for countries like Russia, eager to whitewash your reputation.