MOSCOW, August 12. /TASS/. President of the Ukrainian Biathlon Federation Ivan Krulko has called on the international sports federations to follow suit of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) and remove Russians from the organizations, according to Krulko’s statement published by the Ukrainian organization.

"Not only should Russian and Belarusian athletes be banned from international competitions, but also their sports federations should be expelled from international unions," Krulko said. "It is necessary to take action as it was done by the IBU. Not only did they decide not to let Russian and Belarusian athletes take part in competitions, but also most importantly, they suspended the Russian Biathlon Union and the Belarusian Biathlon Federation in the IBU, and this is the only one of all the international federations, which made such a decision. It must be ensured that they cannot even attend international conferences."

In the spring of 2022, after the launch of the special operation in Ukraine, the IBU, the world’s governing biathlon body, barred Russian and Belarusian biathletes from taking part in international competitions, and later suspended the membership of these countries’ federations.

On 10 August, Ukraine’s parliament, Verkhovna Rada, approved a draft address to the leaders and parliaments of other countries, suggesting that Russian and Belarusian athletes and their sports delegations be banned from entering them.

On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended that international sports federations not allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in international competitions due to the situation in Ukraine. In late March of this year, the IOC Executive Board recommended that Russian and Belarusian athletes be allowed to compete but only as neutrals, and, moreover, only those who had not publicly expressed support for the special military operation in Ukraine and were not associated with the armed forces or national security agencies. In addition, Russian and Belarusian athletes cannot be represented in team sports.