Peaceful pre-Olympic protest in Paris honors fallen Ukrainian athletes

PARIS — In a powerful tribute to the hundreds of Ukrainian athletes who have perished since the Russian invasion of their homeland, the Union of Ukrainians of France led a peaceful march of several hundred people in Paris on Saturday. The demonstration, held in the run-up to this month's Olympic Games, aimed to honor these fallen sports heroes and highlight the ongoing impact of the conflict on Ukraine's athletic community.

Several hundred athletes — including some who competed at elite levels — plus coaches and other people closely involved in professional and amateur sports in Ukraine have been killed in the full-scale invasion since 2022, some while fighting as soldiers on the front lines.

The human losses, the ongoing war, and the widespread destruction of sports facilities threaten to erode Ukraine's edge, both at the Paris Games that open July 26 and in the future, as a powerhouse of Olympic sport after the breakup of the former Soviet Union.

''What is tragic today is that we have hundreds of Ukrainian athletes who will unfortunately not have the chance to come to the Olympic Games in Paris because the Russian Federation senselessly killed them,'' said Volodymyr Kogutyak, vice president of the French Ukrainian association. ''Some were killed fighting in the Ukrainian armed forces, but many others were simply killed as civilians.''

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The AP has been documenting and visualizing the toll the Russia-Ukraine war has had on Ukrainian athletes, coaches and sports facilities ahead of the Paris Olympics. You can view the series here.

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Also commemorated is Stanislav Hulenkov, a 22-year-old judoka, whose body was only identified 10 months after his death, and Oleksandr Peleshenko, a weightlifter who represented Ukraine at the Rio Olympics in 2016. Anastasiia Ihnatenko, an acrobatic gymnastics coach, died in a Russian missile strike along with her husband and their 18-month-old son.

The event drew scores of participants, including Ukrainians, French citizens, and people from various other backgrounds, all united in their grief and determination to honor the athletes' memories. Participants wore T-shirts displaying the names of the deceased athletes, and a minute of silence was observed, followed by speeches from organizers.

''These athletes were killed at a time when they could have been training to be chosen for the Olympic Games. That is significant. Russia did not give them the choice to train and go to Paris. That is the sad part,'' Kogutyak emphasized.

Ukraine's haul of 11 medals at the 2016 Rio Games was its smallest as an independent nation and it tumbled to a low of 22nd in the country rankings. Ukraine recovered to 16th at the pandemic-delayed Olympics in Tokyo in 2021, but just one of its 19 medals was gold — another new low.

The peaceful protest also served a political purpose, aiming to send a clear message regarding the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in the upcoming Paris Games. ''The protest is to loudly and clearly state that the Belarusian and Russian athletes, regardless of what flag or colors they come to Paris under, are not welcome,'' Kogutyak declared.

The human toll of the ongoing war, coupled with the widespread destruction of sports facilities in Ukraine, poses a severe threat to the country's future in Olympic sports. The loss of these athletes robs the nation of its current talents and jeopardizes its sporting future.