Ukraine on Monday pulled its team from the World Judo Championships in Qatar over the presence of Russian athletes it argued were active soldiers.
The International Judo Federation (IJF) gave judoka from Russia and Belarus the green light to compete at the May 7-14 championships in Doha with the condition that they do so as individual neutral athletes.
But the National Judo Federation of Ukraine said in a statement that "the majority of the (Russian) team are athletes who are active servicemen of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, part of the army that attacked Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. ... (Russia) is still waging a brutal full-scale war on our territory, shelling Ukrainian cities, civilian homes every day, killing civilians and children."