On 7 April 2026, a group of MEPs organised an event designed to spotlight the Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych at the European Parliament. While the attendance was rather limited, the event gathered notable MEPs such as Hannes Heide (S&D, Austria), Bogdan Zdrojewski (EPP, Poland), Petras Austrevicius (Renew, Lithuania) as well as Nela Rhiel (Greens, Germany), the chair of the CULT Committee, and Thijs Reuten (S&D, Netherlands) the spokesperson for Ukraine of the S&D Group. Besides these MEPs, Vladyslav Heraskevych shared his experience at the Olympic Winter Games Milano-Cortina and his “memorial helmet” which triggered sympathies among the participating MEPs. His lawyer Mark E. Orth, Vsevolod Chentsov, the Head of the Mission of Ukraine to the European Union, and German biathlete Jens Steinigen who co-founded ‘Athletes’ for Ukraine’ were also present. It remains to be monitored if this case will trigger any concrete EU action, however, the Parliament also committed to monitoring the situation with the future host for LA 2028.
