IPC president disappointed with Ukraine for shifting focus to politics at Milan Cortina Paralympics

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — The president of the International Paralympic Committee was disappointed with the complaints made by Ukraine's National Paralympic Committee during the Milan Cortina Games, saying they appeared to be an attempt to shift the focus from sports to politics.

Andrew Parsons spoke with The Associated Press on the final day of the Winter Paralympic Games on Sunday, praising the outcome of the competition and discussing the return of the Russian flag and anthem, the effects of the warmer weather and the challenges of organizing the event at widespread venues.

Parsons called it “disappointing” that the Ukrainian National Paralympic Committee and the national committees of other nations tried to turn the focus away from sports.

He said he was “super empathetic” with the situation in Ukraine and can “only try to imagine the horror,” but as a sports organization, the IPC must make sure that rules are not broken, even by the Ukrainian committee.

“Yes, I think there was an attempt to always take the focus from sport,” Parsons said. “And I think at the end, even the other national Paralympic committees responded really well, focusing on sports. I understand, but it is disappointing to some extent.”

He said it was expected to see governments attempting to shift the focus toward politics, but it was regrettable that sports bodies were doing it.

“I do hope this is a lesson learned also for those NPCs that have chosen to focus more on the political side than on the sport side, because sport has prevailed,” he said.

Valerii Sushkevych, president of the Ukraine National Paralympic Committee, told the AP in a telephone interview on Sunday that calling for peace and to stop the war was not a political statement, but a human-rights issue.

“If people in the world want to live in peace, it's human rights, it's not political,” Sushkevych said.

Ukraine and a few other nations boycotted the opening ceremony — and were set to boycott Sunday's closing ceremony as well — because of the IPC's decision to give Russian athletes wildcard entries for the Games and allow them to compete under their own flag for the first time in more than a decade.

Sushkevych said the ceremonies are not sporting competitions and are used as a political event by the IPC, which was allowing the participation of a nation that "can't be present here” because of the occupation of another country.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine four years ago ignited Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, causing suffering for civilians and harrowing ordeals for soldiers while rewriting the post-Cold War security order. The fighting has entered its fifth year, with the number of casualties — people killed, wounded or missing — combined from both sides estimated in the millions.

Ukraine’s Paralympic committee accused the IPC and Milan Cortina organizers of subjecting Ukraine’s athletes and coaches to “systematic pressure.” It said the incidents included the alleged forceful removal of a Ukrainian flag, the breaking up of planning meetings by the Ukrainian team, and the prohibition of a Ukrainian athlete from wearing an earring with the words “Stop War” at a podium ceremony. The IPC and local organizers defended their actions.

Sushkevych said the complaints were made to the IPC to defend its athletes because they were being subjected to what he called “discrimination” and biased behavior against the Ukrainians. He said they were only complaining about “facts.”

Parsons said it was expected that some nations weren't happy with the return of the Russian flag, but he felt that the “vast majority” of the national Paralympic committees focused on sport, “because the sport element of it is what helps us fulfill our mission, which is to make for a more inclusive world through Para sport, and not external politics.”

“There was still some voices out there trying to continue focusing on what, in our opinion, should not be the focus of these games, but I think the overall impression of the people, especially people at home watching on TV or following the media, following the news, is (the focus) was more on athletes, more on sport, records, than in politics,” he said.

The Russian flag flew at the Paralympics for the first time since the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, and the anthem was played for the first time at a major global sporting event since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The return of the Russian flag and anthem was seen by some as a signal of a possible full-fledged return to Olympic circles ahead of the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

Parson said the general assembly made the vote to lift the suspension solely with the best interests of the Paralympic movement in mind.

“We don’t think that we are going to initiate processes,” he said. “I know some people believe that this might have the impact on another sporting body, but that’s not what we’re focusing on. It’s for the IOC to make their decisions, it’s for FIFA to make their decisions, and every other international organization to make their decisions."

Parsons said discussions will continue about the effect of warmer weather on the Paralympics. Milan Cortina organizers had to change the schedule of some events because of high temperatures, and some athletes competed in shorts, T-shirts and tank tops.

“Unfortunately, global leaders are not responding in the speed that is necessary to slow down the process," he said. "So this is probably a trend that we will see in 2030, ‘34, ’38 '42 and so on. So we need to have those discussions, and we are having those discussions” within the IPC and together with the IOC and international federations.

“It’s a very big jigsaw puzzle,” Parsons said. “It’s not only, ‘OK, let’s move the Games one month in advance — Olympics in January, Paralympics in February.' That is also an impact on the regular season of those sports. So we need to consider all these different elements. These discussions are taking place. We are not sitting on our hands.”

Parsons said the model of spread-out Games — with competitions and venues in different clusters to reduce the cost of building new facilities — is “here to stay.”

“I think the biggest learning is that it is possible to have great Games, even with that widespread venue master plan. It does not compromise the spirit of the Games, but, yes, brings additional complexity to the operations that needs to be mitigated, and needs to be well understood, and I think having this first experience here, we have a lot of learning to take to 2030, 2034.”

AP Winter Paralympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paralympic-games

Andrew Parsons, President of the International Paralympic Committee, speaks during the opening ceremony at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Verona, Italy, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Hezbollah has launched a new weapon against northern Israel in the latest round of fighting: small drones controlled with fiber-optic cables the width of dental floss that avoid electronic detection.

These drones — used widely in the war in Ukraine — are small, hard to track and potentially lethal.

Many drones are susceptible to electronic jamming by air defenses. Jamming can cause a drone to crash or return to its point of origin.

But fiber-optic drones are not controlled remotely. They have a thin cable that connects an operator directly to the drone, making it impossible to electronically jam.

The drones are not infallible because the wind — or other drones — can cause the cables to tangle.

But, “if you know what you’re doing, it’s absolutely deadly,” said Robert Tollast, a drone expert and researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in London, explaining how the drone can fly low and creep up on a target.

Experts say militaries must either intercept the drones, which is difficult due to their small size and short flight path, or find a way to snip the nearly invisible cable.

Hezbollah — the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon — has mostly been using the fiber optic drones on Israeli soldiers operating in southern Lebanon or towns on the border.

Here’s a closer look at these weapons.

An Israeli military official told AP the fiber optic drones are a relatively new threat during the latest round of fighting with Hezbollah. Hezbollah seems to have turned to them because Israeli air defenses have been successful against larger and more powerful rockets, missiles and other drones, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with military guidelines.

Israel believes the drones are made locally and are easy to produce – requiring little more than an off-the-shelf drone, a small amount of explosives, and transparent wire that is readily available on the consumer market, he said.

He called the drones the biggest threat to troops inside Lebanon but said the Israeli military is working on technological solutions. In the meantime, Israel is taking measures on the ground to defend troops, such as adding nets and cages to military vehicles.

The fiber-optic drones are the latest part of a cat-and-mouse race as Israel’s high-tech defenses race to intercept new threats, especially ones that are less sophisticated.

Ran Kochav, a former head of the Israeli military’s air defense command, said Israel is failing in its attempts to defend against the fiber-optic drones.

“They fly very low and very fast, and they are very small, it’s very difficult to detect them, and even after they’re detected, they are really hard to track,” he said.

Kochav said Israel spent years focusing on strengthening its air defense systems to improve protection against rockets and missiles. But drones were not seen as a top priority.

He said Israel should have been following the advances in fiber-optic drones in the war in Ukraine and assumed that like Russia, other Iranian allies would eventually use them.

Throughout the war in Ukraine, Moscow and Kyiv have been engaged in a race to develop new technology.

Russia pummels Ukraine almost nightly with Shahed long-range attack drones — originally from Iran. Although Moscow has made many improvements to the drones, some can still be taken down by electronic jamming.

Fiber-optic drones were developed to get around that problem — although they do not have the same range as a drone that uses a radio link or artificial intelligence to navigate.

In some cases, fiber-optic drones have been recorded with cables extending as far as 31 miles (50 kilometers) said Tollast, the expert in London.

Russia and Ukraine are using many different types of drones “at a phenomenal scale,” he said.

The fiber-optic drones are in such wide use that footage shows front-line Ukrainian towns coated with shiny, fishing line-like strings, resembling massive spiderwebs shimmering in the sunlight.

Israel has sufficient firepower to intercept drones, but the key is early detection, Kochav said.

He explained that Israel already has suitable technology that tracks changes in light, identifies signals and communications, and can recognize the sound of drone propellers.

But he said these monitoring systems haven’t been widely deployed along the northern border.

Over the past weeks, Hezbollah has aired videos through social media platforms and its Al-Manar TV station of attacks with these new drones, especially against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

These attacks have captured public attention. One attack killed one Israeli soldier and wounded six others, some of them seriously, last weekend. Another attack, on Tuesday, killed an Israeli civilian contractor in southern Lebanon.

In the attack that killed the soldier, Hezbollah issued a video taken by the drone until it exploded in the middle of troops gathering near a vehicle. Another drone was fired at the same location as a military helicopter landed to evacuate the wounded but narrowly missed.

Hezbollah announced that it began using fiber-optic guided drones for the first time during the round of fighting that began March 2, after using other types of drones for years.

Israel also has a fleet of drones that carry out surveillance and attacks, though not necessarily with the fiber optics cables, to target Hezbollah militants.

Zevik Glidai, a 78-year-old math teacher and volunteer ambulance driver, discovered coils of the translucent fiber-optic cables surrounding a drone that crashed into his backyard in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona on April 13.

His house is 2 kilometers (1.5 miles) from the Lebanon border. He was sitting at home when he heard a high-pitched shriek and a small crash. His neighbor yelled that the yard was on fire.

The two of them put out the fire with a garden hose but noticed something new: The destroyed drone was surrounded by loops and curls of a white thread.

“We are very worried about these drones because there's no way to shoot it down, because we can’t detect it,” Glidai said.

He said there was no warning siren before the drone crashed into his house, and the bomb squad that responded called it a miracle that nearly 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of explosives failed to detonate.

“They told me, ‘You have a lot of luck,’” said Glidai, who noted that he's lived through several iterations of Hezbollah weapons in his 48 years in Kiryat Shmona. “They picked up all of the pieces that they could pick up, and they left me a few optical fibers as a keepsake.”

Mroue reported from Beirut; Burrows from London.

FILE - A Ukrainian made FPV fibre optic drone flies at a military market place at an undisclosed location in the Kyiv region, Ukraine, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)