A Ukrainian athlete says he has been “banned” from wearing a helmet paying tribute to compatriots killed during Russia’s invasion of his country at the Winter Olympics. Vladyslav Heraskevych said the decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) “breaks my heart”.

The athlete wore the helmet, showing several athletes killed during the war, while on the skeleton track in Cortina d’Ampezzo, northern Italy, on Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier showed his support for the tribute, thanking Heraskevych for “reminding the world of the price of our struggle”. Heraskevych, 27, said some of those depicted on the helmet were his friends.

He told the Reuters news agency the helmet shows teenage weightlifter Alina Perehudova, boxer Pavlo Ischenko, ice hockey player Oleksiy Loginov, actor and athlete Ivan Kononenko, diver and coach Mykyta Kozubenko, shooter Oleksiy Habarov and dancer Daria Kurdel.

The competitor on Monday said a representative of the IOC had told him he could not use the helmet that he has been wearing during training runs.

In a post on social media, he said: “The IOC has banned the use of my helmet at official training sessions and competitions. A decision that simply breaks my heart.

“The feeling that the IOC is betraying those athletes who were part of the Olympic movement, not allowing them to be honored on the sports arena where these athletes will never be able to step again.

“Despite precedents in modern times and in the past when the IOC allowed such tributes, this time they decided to set special rules just for Ukraine.”

Ukraine’s Olympic Committee has since said it has made a request to the IOC to allow Heraskevych to wear the “helmet of remembrance”.

The IOC has not publicly confirmed the ban.

On Monday, the IOC said it was looking at Heraskevych’s case and had no immediate response following the statement by Ukraine’s committee, Reuters reported.

A spokesperson previously said it had not received any official request for the helmet to be worn in the skeleton competition which gets underway on Thursday.

Heraskevych, who was also Ukraine’s flagbearer during Friday’s opening ceremony, said the IOC representative told him he could not wear the helmet “because of rule 50”.

Rule 50.2 in the Olympic Charter reads: “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”

Heraskevych previously made headlines as he held up a “No War ‍in Ukraine” sign at the games in Beijing in 2022, just ⁠days before Russia’s full-scale invasion which is approaching its fourth anniversary.