✍️ 'This is not politics. This is pure evil,' writes @simonrbriggs.
'And while Ukraine continues to shake under daily bombardment from Russian drones, Heraskevych should have the right to salute the fallen.'
Read the column ⬇️
https://t.co/YCsuCop2xX
“The most important thing is to take part.” Right, @Olympics?
Russia killed Ukrainian athletes — they’ll never take part again.
@heraskevych honored them on his helmet. @iocmedia banned it.
That’s not neutrality. That’s shame.
Їх убили, але їхній голос настільки гучний, що МОК їх боїться.
Я переконаний, що ми не порушували жодних правил МОК (славнозвісне правило 50), а отже, маємо повне право вдягати цей шолом.
Завдяки їхній жертві ми сьогодні живі й можемо бути частиною цих Олімпійських ігор. І я щиро вважаю, що саме завдяки їхній жертві ці Олімпійські ігри взагалі сьогодні можуть проходити.
Хоч МОК і хоче зрадити пам’ять цих спортсменів, я їх не зраджу.
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They were killed, but their voice is so loud that the IOC is afraid of them.
I am convinced that we did not violate any IOC rules (the infamous Rule 50), and therefore we have every right to wear this helmet.
Thanks to their sacrifice, we are alive today and can be part of these Olympic Games. And I sincerely believe that it is precisely because of their sacrifice that these Olympic Games can take place at all today.
Even though the IOC wants to betray the memory of these athletes, I will not betray them.
4 years ago at the 2022 Olympic Games.
Unfortunately, over these years this call for peace has only become even more relevant.
Also over these 4 years, the IOC has changed dramatically. Back then, in that action, they saw a call for peace and did not apply any sanctions against me.
Now, at the Olympics, we have already seen a large number of Russian flags in the stands, on the helmet of one of the athletes - and for the IOC, this is not a violation.
Yet a violation was found in the “helmet of memory”, which pays tribute to members of the Ukrainian sports family who have been killed since the last Olympic Games were held.
The truth is on our side.
I hope for a fair final decision from the IOC.
Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych wore a special helmet during his first training sessions on the Olympic track.
It features portraits of Ukrainian athletes killed during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – in total, it’s over 650 Ukrainian athletes and coaches.
Russia must be kept out of international sports as long as it continues the brutal aggression.
This morning Russia sent cruise missiles into the home of this family.
One of the boys hadn’t even reached the age on one years old. His older brother just seven.
All three of them died.
This is what Russia does.
Stepan was only 16, when pro-russian thugs kidnapped, tortured, and killed him for being proudly Ukrainian. Today, Stepan would have turned 28.
His story is worth remembering and sharing, as heroes live in our memory forever👇
This is a sick, genocidal Russian nationalist reveling in the slaughter of people they see as subhuman excess life, but I see comments like this from edgy Americans pretty much every day, complete with the same “ukronazi banderites” language.
Really makes you think.