Sawt Falasteen - Olympics serves as reminder Ukraine still exists, says sports minister

"Ukrainians are here, Ukraine is participating in the Olympic Games," he said on the eve of the opening ceremony.

Bidnyi, who replaced Vadym Gutzeit as sports minister last November, said sport's greatest show spread over a fortnight in Paris -- and televised around the globe -- would for Ukraine "primarily be a big screen to the world."

Despite heavily disrupted preparations, with some athletes leaving Ukraine, others being killed and training facilities destroyed since Russia invaded on February 24, 2022, Ukraine is still sending a 143-strong team to Paris.

"We need to remind the world that Ukraine exists, is fighting, and is capable of winning," Bidnyi told AFP by email on Thursday.

"Under the coordination of the Office of the President of Ukraine, we plan a large campaign to best explain that the very fact we perform under the Ukrainian flag in Paris is a great display of willpower."

Ukraine won 19 medals in Tokyo in 2021 but Bidnyi says under the vastly different circumstances this year there was a different bar to be set.

"We believe in every Ukrainian athlete and wish to win all the medals," said the 44-year-old body builder.

"But the truth is broader -– every Ukrainian athlete at the Olympic Games is a hero who is already a winner.

"At the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, few believed we would stand.

"But we did, Ukrainian defenders stopped the Kremlin's onslaught."

- 'Lost loved ones' -

Bidnyi said he could not be prouder that the athletes had managed to remain focused enough to qualify for Paris in their respective sports.

"Ukrainian athletes have proudly overcome the incredible hardships brought about by the Russian war," he said.

"The killing of loved ones, the destruction of homes and stadiums, endless relocations -– these are challenges that all Ukrainians, particularly athletes, constantly face."

Ukrainian athletes, coaches and the country's sporting infrastructure have not been spared from the destruction wreaked by Russia since their forces invaded in February 2022.

Ukraine co-hosted the European football championships as recently as 2012.

"Sports infrastructure has suffered significant losses –- that's true," he said.

"The Russians damaged and destroyed more than 500 sports facilities, including 15 Olympic training bases across the country.

"But we can rebuild the sports infrastructure. However, we will never be able to bring back the killed athletes."

Bidnyi said he dreads waking up to receive new figures about dead and wounded athletes and coaches.

"Every morning, I receive an SMS with updates on how many Ukrainian athletes and coaches the Russians have killed," he said.

"Almost every day, this number increases. As of now, the Russians have killed 488 Ukrainian athletes and coaches.

"Among them are dozens of world and European champions, participants of previous Olympic Games, who should have been in Paris now but were killed by Russia."

Those who have made it through to Paris have done so in the most trying of circumstances, says Bidnyi.

"Ukrainian rower Anastasia Rybychok lost her home and training base in Kherson," he said.

"They were first bombed by the Russians and then flooded after the Russians blew up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station.

"Because of Russian terror, we experience power outages. Our athletes have to train in gyms without air conditioning or ventilation simply because there is no electricity.

"Many Ukrainian athletes have lost loved ones due to the war."

Bidnyi says he is delighted that under constant pressure from his office and others the International Olympic Committee have vastly restricted the number of Russians and Belarusians competing in Paris and ordered them to compete under a neutral flag. They are banned from the opening ceremony.

Russia sent a team of 330 to Tokyo "and today there will be a maximum of 15 people without a state, without a flag, without an anthem, without any possibility of hinting where they came from."

J.AbuHassan--SF-PST