Skeleton racer disqualified from Olympics returns to Ukraine, plans fundraiser for fallen athletes

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — After being disqualified from the Milan Cortina Olympics, Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych returned to Kyiv to find his capital suffering disruptions of power, heating and water. Still, he's glad to be back.

“Despite all that, home is the warmest place,” Heraskevych told The Associated Press on Wednesday, standing in Kyiv’s central square as temperatures hovered around minus 12 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit).

Heraskevych, a likely medal contender, was disqualified roughly 45 minutes before competition on Feb. 12 after refusing a last-minute plea from the International Olympic Committee to not use a helmet honoring more than 20 athletes and coaches killed since Russia invaded his country four years ago. The Court of Arbitration for Sport denied Heraskevych’s appeal against the IOC and the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation the next day, though his race had already started and he had no chance of competing even if he won the appeal.

The helmet and the fallout surrounding it produced heavy media coverage around the world, and Heraskevych’s plan is to use his newfound spotlight to launch a fundraising effort for the families of the fallen Ukrainians painted on his helmet.

“It wasn’t me who drew attention to Ukraine — it was them,” he said. “It is their voices that are heard very loudly.”

Recalling his disqualification, he described a conversation with IOC President Kirsty Coventry, held about an hour before the race, as respectful but fruitless.

“Unfortunately, we were not heard,” he said, adding that IOC representatives failed to clearly explain how the helmet violated any rules.

Coventry has repeatedly said his disqualification was justified and based on the guidelines for athlete expression at the Olympics. They say, in part, “the focus on the field of play during competitions and official ceremonies must be on celebrating athletes’ performances.” Heraskevych never made it to the field of play — not in competition, anyway.

He also questioned what he described as inconsistent enforcement, citing the display of a Russian flag on the helmet of Italian snowboarder Roland Fischnaller without apparent sanction. The multiple flags on Fischnaller’s helmet were a tribute to all the past Olympic sites he competed at, the 2014 Sochi Games included. Heraskevych also said he and other Ukrainian athletes saw Russian flags in the stands at Olympic venues, which were supposedly barred by the IOC.

Russian athletes haven’t competed under their country’s flag at a Winter Olympics since 2014, when Russia hosted a doping-tainted Games in Sochi. Some are instead competing as “neutral athletes," under no flag. Ukraine's sports minister last week decried IOC actions his government says indicate the body may soon ease restrictions against Russian athletes.

“I told her that, from the outside, based on what I read in the media, it looks like you are playing along with Russia,” Heraskevych said.

On Tuesday, the International Paralympic Committee said Russia’s National Paralympic Committee had been awarded six slots for the upcoming Games that take place from March 6-15.

After her meeting with Heraskevych and his father, Coventry said they asked her what the IOC could do for Ukraine — specifically to address urgent needs its residents have, such as generators, because of the country’s deeply troubled power grid.

She said she told Heraskevych that she would be “more than happy to work with him and his dad to go out and to ask leaders, governments to try and help.”

“The IOC has, in the last few years, given over $10 million to Ukraine, to the NOC, to sports, to athletes. We want to continue to do that,” she said.

The IOC has not said if it will contribute directly to Heraskevych’s new initiative.

For Heraskevych, his refusal to budge came at a high cost. He began training in skeleton with his father in 2014, when the sport virtually didn’t exist in Ukraine. Without established infrastructure or senior teammates to rely on, he said, they had to find their own way.

Heraskevych would have likely been a legitimate medal contender in Cortina: He finished no worse than sixth place in any of his five official training runs in the buildup to the Olympic race, and had the fastest time in one of those runs — though that was also a run where some contenders, such as gold medalist Matt Weston of Britain, sat out to rest.

“It truly hurts, and we have really been working toward this for a very long time,” he said.

Ultimately, Heraskevych does not regret his decision to compete wearing his helmet. He said the portraits it features represent only a fraction of the “countless” friends and acquaintances he lost during the war.

“Many people I knew left us far too early, at the age when they should have been starting families and building their lives,” he said. “Instead, we now have death in their place — and it hurts.”

AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, contributed to this report.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych talks to the media at the start house of the sliding center at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych holds his crash helmet as he stands outside an improvised memorial to fallen soldiers killed in Russia - Ukraine war at Independence square in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Ukraine's Vladyslav Heraskevych arrives at the finish during a men's skeleton training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Mykhailo Heraskevych, father of Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych, reacts as he sits next to the start house of the sliding center at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych holds his crash helmet as he stands outside an improvised memorial to fallen soldiers killed in Russia - Ukraine war at Independence square in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary is suspending its shipments of diesel to neighboring Ukraine until interruptions to Russian oil supplies via a pipeline that crosses Ukrainian territory are resolved, Hungary's foreign minister said Wednesday.

Russian oil shipments to Hungary and Slovakia have been interrupted since Jan. 27 after what Ukrainian officials say were Russian attacks that damaged the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian crude into Central Europe.

Hungary and Slovakia, which have both received a temporary exemption from a European Union policy prohibiting imports of Russian oil, have accused Ukraine — without providing evidence — of deliberately holding up supplies.

In a video posted on social media Wednesday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said the interruption to oil deliveries was "a political decision made by the Ukrainian president himself.”

Ukraine has denied such accusations.

Szijjártó added that Hungary has enough oil reserves to last more than three months, and that its energy security was assured.

As nearly every country in Europe has significantly reduced or entirely ceased Russian energy imports, Hungary — an EU and NATO member — has maintained and even increased its supply of Russian oil and gas since Moscow launched its war in Ukraine in February 2022.

Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has long argued Russian fossil fuels are indispensable for its economy and that switching to energy sourced from elsewhere would cause an immediate economic collapse — an argument some experts dispute.

Widely seen as the Kremlin's biggest advocate in the EU, Orbán has vigorously opposed the bloc’s efforts to sanction Moscow over its invasion, and blasted attempts to hit Russia’s energy revenues that help finance the war.

Facing what promises to be the most challenging election of his last 16 years in power in April, Orbán has launched an aggressive anti-Ukraine and anti-EU campaign, seeking to convince voters that the neighboring country poses an existential risk to Hungary and that he is the only guarantor of its safety.

Following the interruption to Druzhba oil supplies at the end of January, Hungary's government asked neighboring Croatia to allow Russian oil delivered by sea to be pumped to refineries in Hungary and Slovakia via the Adria pipeline.

Croatia's Economy Minister Ante Šušnjar has said his country would not allow energy supplies in Central Europe be threatened, but pushed back on Hungary's request.

Writing on social media site X on Monday, Šušnjar said there are “no technical excuses left for staying tied to Russian crude for any EU country.”

“A barrel bought from Russia may appear cheaper to some countries, but helps fund war and attacks on Ukrainian people,” he wrote.

Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto holds a press conference following a cabinet meeting in Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (Boglarka Bodnar/MTI via AP)

Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto holds a press conference following a cabinet meeting in Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (Boglarka Bodnar/MTI via AP)

FILE - A general view of a pumping station at the end of the Druzhba oil pipeline in the east German refinery PCK in Schwedt, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007. (AP Photo/Sven Kaestner, File)