133 athletes and coaches in Ukraine have been confirmed dead over the course of the six-month conflict there.
On Tuesday, the Ukraine Ministry of Youth and Sports announced a ban on raising flags and playing national anthems at sporting events.
“The flag will no longer be raised and the anthem will no longer be played in honor of the sports victories of the deceased athletes,” Minister of Youth and Sports Vadym Gutzait wrote, according to CNN.
He said that Russia invaded his country and killed these sports men and women, adding that “133 athletes and coaches have died on the battlefield and from enemy shelling.”
Some of these sportspersons died while defending their nation’s sovereignty in war-fronts, while some were killed in their homes by shelling.
A 36-year-old Olympic shooter, Ivan Bidnyak was one of those who died while fighting in the Kherson region.
Kateryna Diachenko, an eleven-year-old gymnast, was reportedly killed on March 10 when a shell hit her house in Mariupol, killing her father, mother, and brother.
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