WADA President expresses solidarity with Ukraine

The head of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Matviy Bidnyi, held a meeting with the Pesident of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Witold Banka.

According to the ministry’s press service, during the meeting, the parties discussed issues of cooperation in the fight against doping incidentts, as well as challenges faced by the sports in Ukraine due to Russian aggression, Ukrinform reports.

Matviy Bidnyi thanked WADA for its support of Ukraine and a principled position on condemning the actions being taken by Russia and Belarus. Despite the challenging conditions, Ukraine continues to develop its national anti-doping policy, the ministry stressed.

The minister spoke about the new legislation, developed in cooperation with the Council of Europe and WADA in compliance with international conventions and the WADA Code. This allowed for completely resetting the national anti-doping infrastructure and launching new initiatives to combat doping in sports.

The minister also emphasized the importance of wider participation of athletes in the protection of clean sport and the initiative to establish the position of anti-doping ombudsman. Separately, Matviy Bidnyi noted that the fight against doping is a priority in the ministry's work.

The WADA chief expressed solidarity with the Ukrainians and recalled that WADA was one of the first international sports organizations to strongly condemn Russia's aggression.