By AFP | 2024-08-28

PARIS -- The Paris Paralympics are hugely significant for powerhouse Ukraine as great performances can help maimed veterans come to terms with their new circumstances, Tokyo fencing silver medalist Artem Manko told AFP.

The 25-year-old says previous impressive medal hauls have raised respect for disabled people in Ukraine to the highest level it has ever been.

However, for those who have suffered life-changing injuries on the battlefield since Russia invaded in February 2022, adjusting mentally is a challenge in itself.

Hence, Manko said it was imperative for him and his teammates to maintain Ukraine's preeminence in the Paris Paralympics -- they finished third on the medal table in Rio and sixth in Tokyo.

The Paris games began August 28.

"It not only helps boost morale back home; it helps disability in society," Manko told AFP by phone from his training camp last week.

"After the last Paralympics, Ukraine got so many medals we inspired the nation and I think we are now at the highest level of disability acceptance.

"That is really important right now as there are a lot of injured soldiers without legs or hands and in wheelchairs," he said.

"It is hugely important for them to feel disabled people are accepted in society."

Additional challenges

The challenge facing the Ukrainians though is many have had to cope with hugely disrupted preparations, just like many of their compatriots who experience hardship in their daily lives.

Manko has at least been able to train in Germany after he and his fencing teammates were first invited there two years ago by their German counterparts.

Many though, like Tokyo bronze medalist swimmer Anna Hontar, a two-time world champion in the 50-meter freestyle, have not been so fortunate.

While the 20-year-old told AFP she was looking forward to her second Games -- "the second big start in life" -- she adds preparations have been tough.

"Before the Paralympics, my team and I must train in one place to get equipment and so on," said Hontar.

"Every preparation for competitions is difficult and important, but this time it is more difficult, when there is a threat of missile attacks or shelling.

"We are asked to leave the sports hall and go to the bomb shelter for our safety. There are a lot of air raid sirens, and this affects your state of mind," she said.

"The explosions that I recently heard in Poltava scared me a lot, and I could not sleep peacefully."

'Unbreakable'

Training outside the country also has drawbacks, as para-badminton star Oksana Kozyna has found.

The 29-year-old, who says making history for her country in being crowned world champion in 2022 "brings tears to my eyes and gives me goosebumps," moved to France shortly after the invasion and lacked a sparring partner.

However, it was leaving her family that hit Kozyna hard, especially as she has a brother fighting on the front.

"Leaving your family is always difficult, especially if you have a good relationship, but I was forced to go to another country to defend my country in terms of sports," she told AFP.

"This is a sore subject for me; in fact, normally I don't talk about this to anyone. When leaving the country, leaving my family, I realized I was repeating the fate of my parents; this is very unpleasant.

"When I was born, my parents decided to leave me, and when I turned 15, they were found, and when I left for another country, I realized that I was leaving them this time," she said.

"I worry because a bomb could strike [them] at any time."

Another unsettling factor for the Ukrainians is the presence of 96 Russians and Belarusians at the Paralympics, even though they are competing under a neutral flag and barred from attending the opening and closing ceremonies in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

"I am shocked," said Hontar. "This is outrageous; I do not know how it is possible to be near these opponents, and knowing that many of them support the attack on Ukraine."

"When the war began, on the very first day I returned from Mykolaiv to Kherson, and then two days later they captured Kherson, and I was under occupation for a month," she said.

"I saw a lot, and I will say that our people are unbreakable, strong, incredible."

Kozyna is more phlegmatic.

"For me, every opponent is like a Russian; I came, won and left," she said.