Ice hockey: Russia loses 2023 world championship

A monument of Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure Taras Shevchenko is pictured with shrapnel holes in his head in the town of Borodianka, northwest of Kyiv, on April 4, 2022. (Photo: AFP)

Next year's ice hockey world championship will be moved away from St Petersburg in Russia, the International Ice Hockey Federation said on Tuesday, due to concerns about the well-being of players and officials after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"An alternative host for the World Championship will be confirmed during the 2022 IIHF Annual Congress in Tampere, Finland, which will take place during the final week of the 2022 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship," the statement added.

- Soviet monument to Ukraine-Russia friendship razed -

In Kyiv, authorities on Tuesday began demolishing a monument symbolising historic ties between ex-Soviet Ukraine and Russia, AFP correspondents reported, more than two months after Moscow's troops invaded Ukraine.

"The dismantling has started today and we plan to finish it this evening -- we are removing the bronze sculpture of two workers installed in the centre of the capital in 1982 'to commemorate the reunification of Ukraine with Russia'," Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a statement on social media.

Russian President Vladimir Putin enters a hall to meet with Russia's medal-winning athletes of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games and members of the country's Paralympic team at the Kremlin in Moscow on Tuesday. (Photo: AFP)