Ukraine government officially responds after FIA call to reverse Russia decision

The Ukrainian government has now officially responded to calls from its motorsport federation for the FIA to overturn its decision to re-allow Russian participation in motorsport.

Last week, the FIA's legal office wrote that the sanctions in place since March 2022, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, would be lifted, with this becoming binding after a World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) meeting on August 3rd.

Russian and Belarusian national symbols and flags are now once again permitted to be used in competition, with no outright ban on drivers or officials ever being in place, with them being able to compete under the 'FIA flag' banner.

A ban on international competitions in the territory of the two countries remains. 

The FIA added that it "continues to carefully monitor the events in Ukraine and reserves the right to take any further actions or implement further measures in the future, including any necessary actions required to comply with its obligations under any applicable sanctions regime and/or any contracts to which the FIA is a party."

Following the news, the Ukrainian motorsport federation voiced its "categorical disagreement" with the decision and urged the FIA and members of the WMSC to "urgently review and cancel the decision of August 3, 2026, and restore restrictions on the use of state symbols of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus."

Now, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's minister of sports and youth has taken to social media to offer an official government response.

"Calling on @FIA to reverse its decision to readmit Russian and Belarusian representatives," Matvii Bidnyi wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"Russia's war against Ukraine continues. No place for sportswashing or the normalization (sic) of aggression in international sport."

The International Olympic Committee also recently lifted its ban on Russia from competing, which had been in place since 2023, with the last Russian athletes competing under the flag in 2016 after a ban for state-sponsored doping, including at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.