PARIS: Ukrainian Sports Minister Matviy Bidnyi says “the Russians wanted his country to cease to exist” but instead over two years on from the invasion, “the opposite has happened” at the Paris Olympics. “Ukrainians are here, Ukraine is participating in the Olympic Games,” he said on the eve of the opening ceremony. Bidnyi, who replaced Vadym Gutzeit as sports minister last November, said sport’s greatest show spread over a fortnight in Paris — and televised around the globe — would for Ukraine “primarily be a big screen to the world.”