Two Ukrainian para-armwrestlers fined 250 euros each for walking off a Budapest podium during Russia’s anthem — one competed as his father served at the front

Dmytro Lutsyshyn, a master of sport of international class from Zhytomyr, won bronze in the left-arm class and a national-team colleague took silver at the 28th European Para-Armwrestling Championship, staged alongside the senior event in Budapest from 8 to 20 May. The tournament drew more than 1,300 athletes from 34 countries, the largest European edition on record. As the Russian anthem began during the awards ceremony, the two Ukrainians consulted their coach and stepped off the platform, refusing to share it with a competitor representing the state waging war on their country.

Organizers fined each man 250 euros — about $290 at the 4 June mid-market rate of 1.16 — for breaching the medal-ceremony protocol. A doping-control officer who tested Lutsyshyn afterward asked why he had left; he replied that Russia's missiles fly over his house and that hearing the aggressor's anthem was intolerable. Russian competitors jeered and reached out to force handshakes, he said, and the Ukrainians ignored the provocations.

A family already in the fight

For Lutsyshyn the protest was personal. His father, Volodymyr, answered a draft notice in the opening days of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, joining the 110th Mechanized Brigade on the Avdiivka axis rather than avoid service. The athlete said his parents reacted with shock and anger to the fine, which reached them as Russian strikes pounded Kyiv overnight from 14 to 15 May — the same hours he was messaging home about the penalty.

Russia back on European podiums

The sanction rests on rules that treat walking off a ceremony as unsporting conduct, even as international federations restore Russian flags and anthems across Olympic and Paralympic sport. Over the past year governing bodies in gymnastics, fencing, judo and wrestling have lifted neutral-status requirements, drawing repeated objections from Ukrainian athletes. The Ukrainian Gymnastics Federation has formally asked its governing body to let competitors leave the podium during the Russian anthem without discipline — precisely the act that cost Lutsyshyn and his teammate.

The road to Delhi

Lutsyshyn is now training for the World Para-Armwrestling Championship, which India will host in New Delhi from 26 October to 7 November. One more medal of any color, he said, would secure the title of Honored Master of Sport of Ukraine.