Russia returned to high-profile international sports after years in the wilderness at the Paralympics in Italy on Friday in an opening ceremony marked by anger, frustration and boycotts.
Two athletes and two officials marched behind the Russian flag in near silence from the crowd through the Arena di Verona, a first-century Roman amphitheater, at an event that was overshadowed by politics and war as several nations, led by Ukraine, stayed away in protest.
Russia has been a pariah in global sports since its full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in 2022. But last year members of the governing body for the Paralympics, which is organized separately from the Olympics, voted for Russia — and Belarus, which was banned for its support of Russia’s war effort — to be restored to the event. Last month, it confirmed Russia would send six athletes and Belarus four to the Games.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called Russia’s return a “dirty” and “awful decision.”
Both Russia and Belarus took advantage of their return by sending four representatives, the maximum permitted, to the opening ceremony of Milan-Cortina Games. Ukraine, despite not being present, received a huge ovation from the crowd as its flag was carried by local volunteers.
Politicians and sporting federations across Europe have said they would not share a platform with Russia at the opening ceremony. On Friday seven nations — Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland — boycotted the event in its totality. Government officials from nations including the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the Netherlands stayed away, but their athletes were represented at the ceremony by video from other Olympic sites.
Paralympic officials said the video messages did not constitute a boycott but rather a logistical solution because the venue for the opening ceremony was more than 100 miles away from the main sites where the competitions are taking place.
The ceremony, a fraction of the size and scale of the Olympics opening ceremonies held a month ago, was also marked by the absence of the only Iranian athlete, a para cross-country skier who could not safely travel to Italy because of U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
The politics surrounding Russia’s war in Ukraine has engulfed the Paralympics just as it did during the Winter Olympics.
There, controversy broke out over the disqualification of Vladyslav Heraskevych, a Ukrainian athlete who was barred by organizers from wearing a helmet honoring countrymen killed in the war during the skeleton competition.
Beyond Friday’s opening ceremony boycott, Ukraine has said it will not be sending any officials for the duration of the Paralympics and its athletes would not share a medal podium with Russian athletes. A Polish public broadcaster, TVP, announced that it would cut the live feed from the opening ceremony whenever athletes from Russia or Belarus appeared. Estonia’s national broadcaster boycotted airing the entire ceremony.
“Of course we need such support from the international community in our struggle against Russian aggression,” Oleksii Perevezentsev, vice president of Ukraine’s Olympic Committee, said in an interview, praising the nations that joined the boycott at the opening ceremony. “This well-known slogan that sport is out of politics doesn’t fly with us because Russia uses sports as an element of its domination worldwide.”
The boycott was one of the biggest protests at a major international sports event in modern times. Commentators on Britain’s Channel 4 described the sight of the Russian contingent as a defeat for Ukraine and a propaganda victory for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Russia’s presence came as a surprise to some spectators, though they also questioned the presence of other nations currently engaged in war. An Israeli para alpine skier followed the spot the Iranian athlete was supposed to occupy, and was met with mostly silence from the crowd.
“I didn’t know they would be here. I think it’s not so right given what they’ve done, but they’re not the only country that’s done wrong,” said Vanessa Vertuan, 24, a spectator from Verona in reference to Russia.
The vote to restore Russia to the Paralympics came after some members of the I.P.C., the Paralympics governing body, argued that the conditions that led to the original ban had changed. The ban was the result of evidence that Russia was using its participation in international events to promote the war in Ukraine, including by Russian athletes displaying symbols of the invasion, such as the letter Z, on their uniforms and equipment.
“I acknowledge this decision has not been well received in some parts of the world,” Andrew Parsons, the president of the Paralympics governing body, told a news conference in Milan this week. “I want to stress that the I.P.C. is a democratic global organization whose decisions on member suspension are determined by its members.”
Russia’s return comes amid a broader softening of opposition in the sporting world. Senior officials from the International Olympic Committee and FIFA, and even the top White House emissary to global sports, have all talked up Russia’s return in recent weeks. The I.O.C. will host meetings in the coming month at which Russia’s full return to Olympic competition could be confirmed.
At the Milan-Cortina Games, only 13 Russian athletes were allowed to participate as neutrals as part of the continuing ban on its Olympic committee and government officials. Russia has been subject to penalties for more than a decade, initially for a major state-backed doping program that was discovered after the 2014 Sochi Olympics and its efforts to cover up the scale of the cheating, and most recently for the invasion of Ukraine. It last had a team at the Paralympics in 2014.
Russia’s return has been met with dismay across Europe. Several governments, including that of hosts Italy, and the European Commission have spoken out. Hours before the start of the opening ceremony, a group of eight European nations issued a statement condemning the participation of Russia and Belarus.
Russia, though, has long accused the I.O.C. of politicizing sports, most recently following the United States and Israel’s attacks on Iran.
Tariq Panja is a global sports correspondent, focusing on stories where money, geopolitics and crime intersect with the sports world.
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