On 7 March, at the Milan-Cortina Winter Paralympics, the Russian flag flew over a winner’s podium for the first time in 12 years. With the Dolomites soaring behind her, gold medallist skier Varvara Voronchikhina briefly wiped away tears to the strains of the Russian national anthem.
That same day, Ukrainian officials announced that a Russian missile had struck a residential building in Kharkiv, killing two children – the youngest victims in a series of attacks that killed a minimum of 10 people and injured another 40.
It was an extraordinary day for Russia’s sporting ambitions but a perfectly ordinary one in its war against Ukraine.
Shorts
Since 2014, the majority of Russian sportsmen and women have been blocked from representing their country at major sporting competitions – first on the grounds of doping scandals and later because of the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
