July 29 (Reuters) - The National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Ukraine has begun the process of appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision to provisionally reinstate the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), the Ukrainian ruling body said on Wednesday.
The IOC provisionally lifted the ROC's suspension on July 7, a significant step towards Russia's reintegration into the Olympic fold ahead of the Los Angeles 2028 Games.
The ROC was suspended in October 2023 for recognising regional Olympic councils in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The move was the latest step in the IOC's gradual easing of restrictions on Russia's return to international sport, following its December recommendation that federations readmit Russian and Belarusian Under-23 athletes.
"The position of the NOC of Ukraine is based on the fact that the IOC's decision was made prematurely and without proper verification of whether the violations — which led to the suspension of the ROC following the appeal by the NOC of Ukraine on October 6, 2023 — had actually been resolved," Ukraine's NOC said in a statement.
"The NOC of Ukraine also points out that as early as 2024, the CAS confirmed the legality of the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee, recognising that the inclusion of sports organizations from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine violates the territorial integrity of the NOC of Ukraine and the provisions of the Olympic Charter.
"For this reason, the Ukrainian side believes that reinstating the ROC's rights without effectively addressing these violations is incompatible with the principles of international sports law and sets a dangerous precedent for the entire Olympic Movement."
Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev said on July 7 that the IOC's decision should clear the way for Russian athletes to make a full return to the international sporting stage.
Russian athletes competed as neutrals at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics and the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
