Ustinova spoke about the ban for Ukrainians to talk to athletes from the Russian Federation

Athletes from Ukraine are officially prohibited from any communication with Russian athletes at international competitions. This was announced on January 28 by the Russian world champion in pylon Ksenia Ustinova.

"The Ukrainian national team is forbidden to contact us in any way, to reach out, hug, talk, even look at us, so we don't communicate with them in any way," Ustinova said in an interview with Sport24.

Ustinova noted that communication with representatives of other countries, such as Italy and Hungary, is normal: they congratulate each other, communicate in English, and discuss training sessions. The athlete also stressed that she had not experienced under-scoring at the last World Championships, as Russian and Ukrainian judges were removed from the judging panel to ensure objectivity.

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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on December 25 last year to revoke the scholarship of world and European champion in diving Sofia Lyskun due to her acceptance of Russian citizenship. In addition, the Ukrainian leader also limited the scholarship of the athlete's coach Alexandra Sendzyuk.

Lyskun said on December 2 that she had accepted Russian citizenship, and also renounced Ukrainian. The athlete added that the first two coaches who trained her were from Lugansk. They were the ones who gave Lyskun the entire sports base. At the same time, in Ukraine, the champion faced discrimination due to communication with Russian-speaking athletes and coaches. Some of the criticisms and remarks were made publicly at general meetings.

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