Russia opens Paralympics as Crimea crisis rages across sea

Russia opens its first ever Winter Paralympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi today, an opportunity for people with disabilities to triumph but which the crisis in Ukraine threatens to derail.
Amid a chill reminiscent of the Cold War, athletes continued to train ahead of the opening ceremony, which is scheduled for 8:14 pm (1614 GMT), and raised their national flags in the Olympic village at the welcoming ceremony on Thursday.
Among them were 31 Ukrainians, who have decided to stay to compete, the head of Ukraine's paralympic committee said on Friday after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin just hours before the opening ceremony.

"We are staying so that people remember Ukraine, a sovereign country that has sent a team here," said Valery Sushkevich to applause from a packed conference hall.
"I pray to God that the Paralympics help peace in Europe, the world, and my home Ukraine," he said, after meeting with President Putin late on Thursday and asking him that Russia does not attack Ukraine during the Games.
He said he had not received any assurances from the Russian leader who merely "took into account" the request.

Sushkevich added that any further escalation could still force the team to leave mid-Games although he refused to elaborate.

Previously the Ukrainian paralympic committee had said that the team would not stay in Sochi unless Russia pulls its troops from Crimea before the opening ceremony.
Sushkevich said the Ukrainian team was in Sochi representing the country and "cannot be indifferent to the situation" there, so their participation in the opening ceremony parade on Friday evening would be in a "special format, very subdued" but without political slogans.
"I don't remember a situation in the history of the Paralympic movement when the host country began an intervention into a participating country," he said.
"We hope there will be steps for de-escalation, for lessening the threat of war," he said.