Disqualified skeleton racer Heraskevych and German initiative Athletes for Peace launch campaign for fallen Ukrainian athletes’ families

Skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych said at the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference that he and German initiative Athletes for Peace are launching a fundraising campaign to support the families of Ukrainian athletes killed by Russians, as reported by Ukrinform news agency. 

“We are jointly launching a fundraising campaign with a German organization for the families of athletes. Athletes for athletes. This is a great initiative that will also help honor the memory of these wonderful people,” Heraskevych said.

The athlete showcased a helmet featuring 24 portraits, yet emphasized that far more athletes [650 persons] have been killed. He urged that this must be remembered.

Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified ahead of the first heat at the 2026 Olympic Games. Heraskevych planned to start the first race in a “Helmet of Memory”; however, the race took place without his participation. On the eve of the event, the International Olympic Committee banned Heraskevych from competing in the “Helmet of Memory” at the Olympic Games, explaining the disqualification as “non-compliance with the rules.”

Spokesperson Mark Adams leveled down the war between Russia and Ukraine and casualties in Ukraine, saying, “There are 130 conflicts in the world, and we can’t have them all featured – however terrible – in the field of play during the competition.”

The International Olympic Committee is facing criticism for hypocrisy, allowing Russian sportsmen to participate in the Olympic Games who support and endorse the war against the Ukrainian people. 

The international human rights organization Global Rights Compliance expressed “profound concern” on February 13 regarding the IOC decision.

According to the human rights advocates, the IOC’s reference to the Olympic Charter and other participation rules that “prohibit any forms of self-expression in the sports arena” contradicts how the committee applies its own rules to other athletes, including Russians.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the IOC’s decision to disqualify the Ukrainian skeleton racer does not demonstrate adherence to Olympic principles of justice and support for peace.

The President awarded Vladyslav Heraskevych the Order of Liberty.

Meanwhile, Heraskevych registered a petition on the Ukrainian government’s page on January 27, calling for the introduction of sanctions against Russian athletes who support the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine.

In the petition, Heraskevych included a list of Russian athletes against whom he proposes imposing sanctions. The list includes those who publicly support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, specifically those who illegally crossed Ukraine’s state border, unlawfully traveled to temporarily occupied territories, and participated in propaganda events.

The list includes: 

• ANGELINA MELNIKOVA. In April 2025, she won the primaries for Putin’s sanctioned “Yedinaya Rossiya” party to participate in the elections for the Voronezh City Duma. She supported the war against Ukraine on social media.
• SVETLANA GOMBOEVA. She repeatedly visited temporarily occupied Crimea in violation of Ukrainian law. 
• IANA EGORIAN, an ambassador for the sanctioned organization “Zdorovoye Otechestvo”і , which is involved in the abduction of Ukrainian children.
• EVGENII BAIDUSOV visited temporarily occupied Crimea in violation of Ukrainian law. 
• IMAM GANISHOV. In 2023, he visited the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia region to meet with representatives of Russian military units. Ganishov also visited temporarily occupied Sevastopol, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. During his visits to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, he created photo and video materials in support of the war of aggression and the justification of Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territories, which he distributed online.
• MADINA TAIMAZOVA participated in a propaganda event titled “masterclass for young judokas from Donbas,” which took place in April 2022. Through her participation in this event, Taimazova contributed to a propaganda PR campaign aimed at legitimizing the deportation of Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
• VLADISLAV LARIN called on Russian citizens in a video appeal online in November 2022 to support and fund the Russian military in the armed aggression against Ukraine. 
• MAKSIM KHRAMTSOV participated in a propaganda event — the federal marathon “Znanie.Pervye” — and conducted a sports masterclass for children in temporarily occupied Donetsk in April 2025.
• FEDOR CHUDINOV visited several cities in the temporarily occupied Luhansk Oblast in October 2024, where, supported by the “Zdorovoye Otechestvo” movement and the regional branch of the All-Russian Socio-Political Movement “People’s Front ‘For Russia'” — which is sanctioned by the EU, Canada, Switzerland, and Ukraine — in the so-called “LPR,” he conducted propaganda sports events with Ukrainian children.

Zelenskyy has reported in his evening address that Kyiv is preparing a new sanctions package targeting Russians who “work for the war and put sport at the service of war”.

“The documents are already prepared; this Ukrainian sanctions package should be a signal to others around the world – a signal that one cannot simply turn a blind eye to support for aggression. When Ukrainians at the Olympics are forbidden to even mention the victims of Russian aggression, that is clearly a global rollback of justice. We will restore justice. The sanctions decree will be issued soon,” the President stated.