Crimea intends to develop sport cooperation with DPR, LPR, Transdniestria
SIMFEROPOL. Aug 6 (Interfax) - Crimea intends to invite to competitions in the region athletes from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) and Transdniestria, Crimean Sport Minister Georgy Shestak told reporters.
"Our free-style wrestlers have already gone to Donetsk for a competition and got awards. In December Crimea will hold a master tournament on Greco-Roman wrestling for the first time and, of course, I will invite Transdniestria, we will even pay for their travel, we will invite Donetsk and Luhansk," Shestak told reporters in Simferopol on Thursday.
Athletes from the western regions of Ukraine, where Kyiv is holding a forceful operation, ask the Crimean Sport Ministry to help them move to Crimea, he said.
"Their athletes want to come to us, they ask to accommodate them but, unfortunately, we cannot help them - it is necessary to find sponsors and we do not have money ourselves," the minister said.
According to Shestak, Crimean athletes who stayed after the region joined Russia do not go to competitions in Ukraine. "Danger, political danger exists for them. I would not want to risk our athletes," he said.