Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has strongly condemned a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that overturned sanctions imposed by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The tribunal’s decision reinstated Russian national ice hockey teams, allowing them to return to world championships for the 2026-2027 season.
Writing on social media, Sybiha criticized the decision by stating that it “stains the ice with Ukrainian blood.” He argued that there are no justifications for rehabilitating Russian sports bodies while Moscow continues its ongoing military aggression, including lethal missile, bomb, and drone attacks against Ukrainian civilians and municipal infrastructure. Stressing that there can be no “business as usual” while the war persists, Sybiha urged international sports organizations and democratic partner governments to take an uncompromising stance and called on allied nations with uncompromised moral compasses to implement national entry bans preventing Russian athletes from competing on their territories.
The Lausanne-based CAS ruling dismantled the blanket suspensions that the IIHF had enacted following the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The court’s verdict annulled exclusions that applied to tournaments across the 2026–2027 competitive season for both men’s and women’s World Championships.
The IIHF expressed deep disappointment with the verdict, noting that its original suspension was implemented to guarantee athlete security and protect the operational integrity of international tournaments. The reinstatement has created immediate geopolitical and logistical challenges for upcoming events, such as the 2027 IIHF Men’s World Championship in Germany. Because the Ukrainian national ice hockey team has also qualified for the tournament, the potential participation of Russian teams raises significant security and boycott concerns for European organizers and participating federations.
This development follows other recent instances of Russia’s return to international sports hosting, such as the International Weightlifting Federation awarding Moscow the hosting rights for the 2030 World Championships—the first time an Olympic sport governing body has given Russia a flagship world tournament since the 2022 invasion. Previously, under guidelines established in 2022 and revised in 2023, Russian and Belarusian competitors were restricted to competing strictly as Individual Neutral Athletes without state symbols, while team sports remained entirely closed to them.
