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SOCHI, Russia (AP) — Ukraine's Paralympic leader has decried Russian "aggression" in his homeland as the Sochi Games closed with his country's future in the balance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is due at the Sochi closing ceremony as, about 300 miles (480 kilometers) away on Ukraine's southerly peninsula, Crimea votes Sunday whether to demand greater autonomy or split off and seek to join Russia. The legitimacy of the vote has been condemned in Kiev and the international community.
Ukraine Paralympic Committee President Valeriy Sushkevych fears the team could be returning to a country on the brink of greater conflict Monday, expressing a desire Putin "recognizes the danger of what we call war."
Sushkevych believes that the Ukrainian team was affected psychologically competing in a country which had shown "aggression toward our country."
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