Organizers of the Fencing World Cup stage in Nanjing, China, have banned members of the Ukrainian women’s team from unfurling an anti-Russian banner and taking photos against its backdrop. Ukrainian women have devised an action to protest against the decision of the International Fencing Federation (FIE) to send athletes from Russia and Belarus back to the tournaments.
Their banner stated that Russia had “already killed 250 Ukrainian athletes”. In addition, as Ukrainian swordsman Vlada Kharkiva said, the national team representatives had stickers on their masks indicating that they did not agree with the decision of the FIE, the organizers told them also asked to take them off.
Before each fight, the judges checked carefully if we had made it. There were also always security guards around us – they probably made sure we didn’t stage any action. In principle, the video shows how everything ended. We rolled up the banner and indignantly walked out into the room.
said Kharkiv.
On March 10, the FIE Congress voted the admission to participation in international competitions of athletes from Russia and Belarus. The decision comes into force from the second half of April.
