Ukraine's National Olympic Committee (NOC) has launched an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), challenging the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision to provisionally reinstate the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), the Ukrainian governing body announced Wednesday.
The IOC provisionally lifted the ROC's suspension on July 7, marking a major step toward Russia's return to the Olympic movement ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
The ROC was suspended in October 2023 for recognizing regional Olympic councils in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The move was the latest step in the IOC's gradual easing of restrictions on Russia's return to international sport, following its December recommendation that international federations readmit Russian and Belarusian under-23 athletes.
"The position of the NOC of Ukraine is based on the fact that the IOC's decision was made prematurely and without proper verification of whether the violations that led to the suspension of the ROC, following the appeal by the NOC of Ukraine on Oct. 6, 2023, had actually been resolved," the NOC said in a statement.
