In a post through its social media account, the Miss Supranational Organization has released the following statement from Gerhard Parzutka von Lipinski, President and CEO of the organization:
Ukraine has been a very special part of the Supra Family since the beginning of our competition in 2009 when Oksana Moria won the very first title in Poland. The European Union, where many countries joined together to cooperate with one another, is an excellent example of supranationalism. Today, we are joining the EU, countries around the world, sports federations, cultural events and the people around the world who choose to stand up for freedom and unity. We will not accept a contestant from Russia as we cannot condone the actions of the Kremlin.
On February 24, Russia has launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has justified his actions after calling Ukraine’s move to join both the European Union and the NATO as a threat to its security.
In response, European Union, the United States, Canada, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and several other nations imposed sanctions on Russia. FIFA, the football governing organization has expelled Russia from World Cup qualifiers. Other organizations followed. Even the neutral Switzerland has decided to freeze the assets of several high ranking Russians and its airline suspended flights to Russia. Russian aircraft was banned from flying over European Union, United States and Canada.
The Miss Supranational Organization is the first among the Big5 pageants to ban Russia. The ban covers Mister Supranational pageant as well.
