 SOCHI, Russia (AP) — Ukraine will compete in the Winter Paralympics in Sochi despite Russia's military moves in Crimea.
The Ukrainian Paralympic Committee decided against boycotting the games, announcing a few hours before Friday's opening ceremony that its athletes would stay.
The decision came after discussions between Ukrainian officials and athletes over whether to pull out in light of the crisis back home and Russia's military takeover of the Crimean peninsula.
"We are staying at the Paralympics," Valeriy Sushkevich, president of the National Paralympic Committee of Ukraine, said at a news conference.
However, he added that the circumstances were far from ideal.
"I don't remember a situation when the organizing country during a Paralympics started an intervention on the territory of a country taking part," Sushkevich said, according to the R-Sport agency.
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