With the Winter Games set to begin this week, the United Nations has called for a 52-day pause on all wars, invoking a centuries-old tradition to ensure the safe passage of athletes and officials attending the events in Italy.
“I … call upon all warring parties of current armed conflicts around the world to boldly agree to true mutual ceasefires for the duration of the Olympic Truce, thus providing an opportunity to settle disputes peacefully,” Annalena Baerbock, president of the 80th session of the U.N. General Assembly, said Friday, referring to an agreement in which countries are asked to stop fighting for seven days before the Olympic Games until seven days after the Paralympic Games.
The idea of an Olympic Truce, or “Ekecheiria,” dates back to ancient Greece, when three warring kings — Iphitos of Elis, Cleisthenes of Pisa and Lycurgus of Sparta — are said to have signed a treaty allowing the safe passage of athletes and spectators from their city-states to the Olympic Games. The truce, documented in ancient sources as a tradition that endured with varying levels of observance, was revived in the 1990s during the Bosnian War, in the world-bridging spirit of the modern Games, and resulted in a brief ceasefire.
Every two years, the U.N. General Assembly adopts an Olympic Truce resolution ahead of the Games. However, in 2001, on the heels of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the United States, which was hosting the 2002 Winter Olympics, introduced a resolution that did not call for a pause in hostilities with Afghanistan.
In November, 118 member states voted to adopt the Milan-Cortina resolution.
More than 240,000 people died in conflict-related violence worldwide in 2025, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, The Washington Post reported. Fighting has continued into the new year, with ongoing violence in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere. Governments and armed groups are driving the violence — despite the efforts of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has sought to cast himself as global peacemaker. And Trump continues to weigh strikes on Iran, following a deadly government crackdown on protests.
About 1.2 million Russian soldiers have been killed, wounded or gone missing since the start of Moscow’s war with Ukraine in 2022, according to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies published last week. The number represents “more losses than any major power in any war since World War II,” the CSIS report said. Ukraine has suffered roughly 600,000 total losses, according to the report.
Forty-six athletes are set to represent Ukraine in the Games, the country’s Olympic Committee said. Russia’s participation was significantly restricted following the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Around the world, conflict and division continue to cause untold suffering,” International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry saidbefore the body in November. “In such a world, sport — and the Olympic Games in particular — can offer a rare space where people meet not as adversaries, but as fellow human beings.”
The Milan-Cortina Olympic Truce began on Friday. So far, no party to conflict has announced plans to observe it.
“The Olympic Truce proves that, even in times of division, humanity can still find common ground through sport and that, through friendly competition, we can rise above our divisions and reaffirm our common humanity,” Baerbock, president of the 193-member U.N. body, said.
More than 3,500 athletes from 93 countries are slated to compete in this year’s Winter Olympics in northern Italy, some representing countries wracked by internal political violence — including Haiti, which is sending two athletes, and Guinea-Bissau, which is sending one athlete, following a coup in December. Madagascar, which also underwent a coup, is sending one athlete.
In the days leading up to the first day of the would-be Olympic Truce, Russia launched strikes on Ukraine’s energy sector, targeting facilities belonging to DTEK, the country’s largest private energy company, in the Odesa region and Naftogaz, the state oil and gas firm, in western Ukraine, The Post reported.
The IOC banned Russia’s Olympic Committee from participating in all team sports following the country’s invasion of Ukraine, which occurred during the period between the Beijing Winter Olympics and the Paralympics. Russian athletes who still want to compete can do so as “Individual Neutral Athletes” — so long as they don’t support the war.
Thirteen Russian athletes are set to compete in this year’s Winter Olympics as neutral individuals, the IOC said last week. Under this designation, the athletes cannot participate in the Opening Ceremonies or wear or display their team colors or flag. If a Russian athlete wins a gold medal, IOC-commissioned music will play instead of the country’s national anthem. Any medal won by a Russian athlete will not be included in the official tally.
Russia has been accused of violating the Olympic Truce twice before — in 2008 when it invaded Georgia during Beijing’s Summer Olympics and in 2014 when it annexed Crimea in the period between the Sochi Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
Last year, amid Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, pro-Palestinian protesters urged the IOC to bar Israel from the Paris Olympics, an idea that did not appear to gain high-level traction. The Palestinian Olympic Committee accused Israel of violating the Olympic Truce in July by continuing to bomb Gaza. In December, pro-Palestinian activists attempted to disrupt the opening stages of the torch relay for the Milan-Cortina Games, the Associated Press reported.
Nine Israeli athletes are set to compete in the Winter Games in Italy, according to the country’s Olympic Committee, where they will be vying for medals in cross-country skiing, speed skating and figure skating, among other sports. The Palestinian territories have never competed in the Winter Games.
Israeli forces have killed more than 70,000 Palestinians since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack on southern Israel, during which some 1,200 people were killed and 250 abducted. On Monday, Israel recovered the remains of 24-year-old Rani Gvili, the last hostage held in Gaza. The return of the hostages, including 20 living captives and the bodies of 28 others, is part of an October ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas — though lethal Israeli strikes in the enclave have persisted.
In Sudan, paramilitary fighters with the Rapid Support Forces are believed to have killed more civilians in 2025 than any other non-state actor, The Post previously reported, butchering children, mothers and other civilians.
The United Arab Emirates, which is slated to make its Winter Olympics debut this week, continues to draw condemnation from the international community over its involvement in Sudan’s years-long civil war — which has devolved into the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
Though the Emiratis have denied backing the RSF, evidence obtained by The Post shows the gulf state has provided munitions, drones and other military support to the paramilitary group.
Two athletes are set to represent the UAE in the Milan-Cortina Games this month, competing in just one sport: Alpine skiing. Sudan has never competed in the Games.
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