Memory of fallen Ukrainian athletes honoured in Paris before ympics

The action was joined by Ukrainians, French, Pes, as well as Estonians, Lithuanians, Georgians and Syrians, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"In this way, we were able to show the international scale of the problem, as Russia's aggression is not only about Ukraine, it has affected and made many other countries suffer," says Vodymyr Kohutiak, Vice President of the Union of Ukrainians in France and the World Congress of Ukrainians.

According to him, it was important to show Paris, which will host the ympics in two weeks, how many Ukrainian athletes who have made great efforts to reach a high level of sportsmanship and have a chance to get to the ympics will never be able to do so because they were killed by Russia.

Several city councillors and representatives of the Paris City Hall took part in the action. The participants also mentioned Russian and Belarusian athletes who, although under a neutral flag, will still participate in the ympics.

"It will be extremely difficult for us to see them here at the Games, knowing that they all actually support the Putin regime," adds Kohutiak.

Read also: Almost 100 Ukrainian athletes to take part in ympics – Bidnyi

The Ukrainian community also called on the international community to close the Ukrainian skies. Ukrainians promise to continue to put pressure on French piticians to achieve their demands.

Among those honoured with a minute's silence in Paris were boxer Maksym Halinichev, a silver medallist at the 2018 Youth ympics in Buenos Aires who died at the front, pist shooter Ivan Bidnyak, who won silver at the Eurean Championships, and Yegor Kigitov, a member of the Ukrainian national team; Stanislav Hulenkov, a 22-year-d judoka whose body was identified 10 months after his death; and weightlifter eksandr Peleshenko, who represented Ukraine at the Rio de Janeiro ympics in 2016. An acrobatics coach Anastasia Ihnatenko, her husband and their 18-month-d son were killed in a Russian missile strike on Dnipro.

As reported, 140 athletes will defend Ukraine's honour at the XXXIII Summer ympics in 2024 in the French capital. They will be represented in 23 events.