The Sports Front project is one year old: 1+1 media group talks about the fight against Russians and Belarusians in the international sports arena

In June 2022, 1+1 media group launched a large-scale communication campaign called "Sports Front". Through this initiative, the media group calls for blocking Russian and Belarusian national teams and teams in the international arena, as well as boycotting Russian and Belarusian athletes who have spoken out in favour of the war or have not voiced their position. 

During this time, 10 legendary Ukrainian athletes, known all over the world, joined the project team. Thus, Andriy Shevchenko, Heorhiy Zantaraya, Anna Rizatdinova, Stanislav Goruna, Oleh Verniaiev, Liliia Podkopaieva, Olga Harlan, Jean Beleniuk, Oleksandr Shovkovsky, and Serhiy Stakhovsky addressed the international audience through thematic videos on their platforms with a request to prevent Russians and Belarusians from participating in the competition. In addition, the athletes showed the realities of life for all Ukrainians and the extent of the destruction caused by the bloody war unleashed by Russia. 

In total, the campaign reached millions of users on social media and television. The video messages themselves were broadcast during major sporting events, in addition to the resources of the 1+1 media group, the United News marathon and the official pages of the athletes-ambassadors. The videos were also translated into English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and distributed through the pages of diplomatic missions to the European audience. 

It is important to note that on the eve of the IOC Congress (28-30 March), 1+1 media group together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called on the committee to exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Olympic Games. In their video message, 1+1 media and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs engaged representatives of the sports community who have conquered Olympic peaks and won awards at world-class competitions at different times. The full version of the video is available in Ukrainian, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

"Since the first days of the full-scale invasion, 1+1 media has been fighting the Russian aggressor on all fronts. On 24 February, our hosts were among the first to go live to talk about what was really happening in Ukraine, and later the group implemented dozens of projects to draw attention to the events in the country. For us, these projects, as well as the Sports Front initiative, are missionary. We strive to oust representatives of the aggressor countries from the entire civilised world, including sports. And we are sincerely grateful to all organisations that continue to fight on this path and make or lobby for important decisions, such as the resolution recently adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)," comments 1+1 media CEO Yaroslav Pakholchuk. 

To recap, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban Russians and Belarusians from the 2024 Olympics in Paris. PACE called for the exclusion of athletes from these countries from all other major sporting events while Russia's war against Ukraine continues. For more details, please follow this link.