A Ministry of Youth and Sports Commission suspended the UFUA after Iryna Predko, the wife of Stanislav Predek, who represented Ukraine at the CMAS General Assembly in Serbia's capital Belgrade on April 7 and 8, was pictured with Anna Arzhanova, President of the International Federation since 2013.

Iryna Predko delivered a speech expressing Ukraine's opposition to a return for Russian and Belarusian athletes as neutrals to CMAS competitions at the General Assembly, which came following the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision to lift its recommended outright ban.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Youth and Sports has warned National Federations they risk losing their status by participating in international competitions against Russian and Belarusian athletes.

The UFUA is the first National Federation to lose its status since the Government adopted this resolution in April.

The Ministry can also suspend governing bodies who violate "the terms of the cooperation agreement" or include "inaccurate information in documents".

Ukrainian publication Tribuna reported violation of the terms of the cooperation agreement were the grounds cited by the Commission for taking action against the UFUA.

Stanislav Predek resigned from his position as vice-president of the UFUA in the hope it could avoid punishment from the Ministry, but this was to no avail, and he slammed the process which led to its suspension.

"We asked to be represented by a sports lawyer, the head of the National Athletics Federation Yevhen Pronin, to protect our interests," he told insidethegames through an interpreter.

"The President of the Underwater Federation could not take part because he was on his way from Lithuania for the [Finswimming] World Cup.

"The decision was taken in 15 minutes, so our lawyer had maybe three or four minutes to deliver a speech.

"The Commission members were just workers of the Ministry who get paid by the Ministry and some Federations who are close to the Ministry.

"It is ridiculous to lose the status of the National Federation just because of a photo of the vice-president's wife, but that decision was taken in 15 minutes.

"It was claimed the photo showed we are not against the participation Russian and Belarusian athletes."

Pronin told Tribuna "this is state intervention in the autonomy of public organisations and sports federations".

Predek claimed there were "no grounds or no proof for this decision", and suggested Sports Minister Vadym Gutzeit, also President of the National Olympic Committee, "was under pressure to prove his efficiency, so this has been done to one National Federation so others are scared".

He insisted there is widespread support among the UFUA's athletes for the Government's stance that they should not compete against Russian and Belarusian athletes, and Ukraine is set to miss the CMAS Finswimming World Junior Championship in Egypt's capital Cairo from June 19 to 24 because of this ruling.

Ukrainian athletes can still compete in competitions, despite the UFUA losing its national status, but Predek claimed it is "not clear" if they will have funding from the Ministry to compete at the Finswimming European Championships in Hungarian town Gödöllő next month.

insidethegames has asked the Ukrainian Ministry of Youth and Sports for a comment on the UFUA suspension and Predek's remarks.

Predek added he generally believes Russian and Belarusian officials should be suspended from their roles in international sport - a move the IOC stopped short of even when it recommended a ban on athletes - but defended Arzhanova at CMAS, pointing out she has lived in Spain for more than a decade.

"Overall I support the President's guidance that Russian and Belarusian officials should not be in power, however in regards to Anna I can't really treat her as Russian because she has been living in Mallorca for 10 to 15 years, and there is an official statement from her on the website of the Underwater Federation where she clearly states she is against the war," he said.

"She has also helped Ukrainian athletes as President of the International Federation and in a personal capacity, so based on her mindset I can't consider her a Russian just because of her passport."

He insisted that in the image in question, "Anna was three or four persons away - it was just an accident that she was in the photo".

Regarding the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to international sport, a decision taken by an increasing number of governing bodies, Predek declared "it is not acceptable, but International Federations including the CMAS are just following guidelines from the IOC".

The IOC said of the Ukrainian Government's decision to punish National Federations whose athletes participate against Russian and Belarusian competitors "raises serious questions about the autonomy of Ukrainian sport" and would "hurt only the Ukrainian athlete community".