Russian athletes permitted to compete under own flag at Paralympics for first time since 2014

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) have granted wildcard places to six skiers and snowboarders ahead of the Games in Milan Cortina in a shock U-turn.

Russia was first banned in 2016 for state-sponsored doping, and again over the Ukraine war in 2022.

Last year IPC's president Andrew Parsons insisted the ban wasn't over the invasion itself, but Moscow's "sport washing".

The last time Russian athletes were able to compete under their own flag was in the 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Sochi, Russia.

The country will have one woman and one man competing in para alpine skiing, one woman and one man in para cross-country skiing, and two men in the snowboarding event in Italy.

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Russian athletes have competed at the Paralympics since but have competed under a neutral banner.

Mr Parsons previously said: "Russia and Belarus, they used Paralympic sport to promote what they called the "special operation" at the time," he said in an interview.

"And this is what led to the first suspension, the suspension in 2023. Between 2023 and now... there is less evidence of that being used again for the promotion of the war."

The UK and 32 countries, mostly European, signed a joint statement expressing "serious concern" after committee members voted to lift the partial suspensions of Russia and Belarus in September.

It comes after Ukrainian sports minister Matvii Bidnyi said that the Paralympics should not have lifted its ban on Russia.

He disputed the IPC president's claim that sport is no longer being used to promote the war.

"It's unjust, and we think it's not appropriate to give the opportunity to terrorist states," he said.