On 28 July 2026, the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine (NOC of Ukraine) filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne challenging the decision of the Executive Board of the c (IOC) dated 7 July 2026 to provisionally reinstate the rights of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).
In its appeal, the NOC of Ukraine requests that CAS set aside the IOC Executive Board's decision, arguing that it is inconsistent with the Olympic Charter provisions governing the territorial jurisdiction of National Olympic Committees. According to the appellant, the circumstances that led to the suspension of the ROC in 2023 have not, in fact, been remedied, and the decision to restore its rights was adopted without a proper assessment of the relevant facts.
The National Olympic Committee of Ukraine is represented before CAS by the Ilyashev & Partners team comprising Managing Partner Mіkhail Ilyashev, Counsel Roman Protsyshyn, and Associate Karine Altunyan.
One of the key challenges faced by the Ilyashev & Partners team while preparing the appeal was gathering evidence demonstrating that, despite the formal removal of regional Olympic councils from its structure, the ROC has continued to extend its activities to territories falling within the jurisdiction of the NOC of Ukraine. Ironically, one of the strongest pieces of evidence came from the Russian side itself. Just two days after the IOC's decision, ROC President and Russian Minister of Sport Mikhail Degtyarev publicly stated that the ROC had not relinquished any territories and continued to operate within the boundaries defined by the Russian Constitution, including the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. This statement not only demonstrated the purely formal nature of the restructuring but also called into question the factual basis on which the IOC decided to reinstate the ROC.
This is the first case in the history of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine in which it has challenged a decision of the International Olympic Committee before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, seeking to protect its rights guaranteed under the Olympic Charter.
"Any exercise by another National Olympic Committee of authority over sports organisations, national federations or athletes located within the territory of Ukraine constitutes a direct violation of the territorial jurisdiction of the NOC of Ukraine and of its rights guaranteed by the Olympic Charter," said Mіkhail Ilyashev, Managing Partner at Ilyashev & Partners.
By way of background, on 12 October 2023, the IOC Executive Board suspended the Russian Olympic Committee's membership after it incorporated sports organisations from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine into its structure. In February 2024, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the legality of that decision, dismissing the ROC's appeal. On 7 July 2026, the IOC decided to provisionally reinstate the Russian Olympic Committee's rights, and that decision is now the subject of the present proceedings.
Ilyashev & Partners provides legal representation to the NOC of Ukraine on a pro bono basis.