There are no plans to cancel this year's SportAccord World Sport and Business Summit in Yekaterinburg, despite the escalating diplomatic crisis between Russia and the West over Ukraine ©SportAccord

This year’s SportAccord World Sport and Business Summit in Yekaterinburg will go ahead as planned, organisers have insisted, despite the deteriorating situation between Russia and the West over Ukraine.

The movement overnight of Russian armed forces into the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk has raised fears of an invasion of Ukraine.

A number of countries, including the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union, have begun imposing restrictions on Russia.

Last month, the US Government raised its "Travel Advisory on Russia to Level 4: Do Not Travel".

The SportAccord World Sport and Business Summit was originally due to take place last year but was postponed twice due to COVID-19 and rescheduled to take place this year between May 15 and 20.

The current uncertainty has not led to any plans to cancel or postpone the event again, SportAccord managing director Nis Hatt has claimed.

"SportAccord is looking forward, together with our host, the Russian Federation, to once again welcome the international sport community to Russia - focussing on unity and building bridges for the future of sport and society," Hatt, due to visit Yekaterinburg later this month, told insidethegames today.

The SportAccord World Sport and Business Summit has not taken place since the Gold Coast in 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic ©SportAccord
The SportAccord World Sport and Business Summit has not taken place since the Gold Coast in 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic ©SportAccord

The SportAccord World Sport and Business Summit has not been held since 2019, when Australia's Gold Coast was the destination.

Chinese capital Beijing and then Olympic capital Lausanne in Switzerland had been due to stage the 2020 edition, but the pandemic led to it being cancelled altogether.

The summit in Yekaterinburg will now take place fewer than 15 months before the city is due to host the 2023 Summer World University Games.

Russia’s Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin held talks in Moscow yesterday with Evgeny Kuivashev, the Governor of the Sverdlovsk Region, of which Yekaterinburg is the administrative capital, about SportAccord and next year’s FISU Summer World University Games.

As a result of the meeting, an Agreement between the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation and the Government of Sverdlovsk region on cooperation and interaction in the field of physical culture and sports called "Sport - the Norm of Life" was signed.

Russia has hosted the Summit twice before, in Saint Petersburg in 2013 and Sochi in 2015.