beijing ukrainian athletes showed resilience in the face of the turmoil engulfing their wartorn homeland saturday racing to the top of the medal table on day one of the beijing winter paralympics with an impressive haul of sevenwith more than 12 million of their fellow citizens now refugees and fears of a food crisis mounting the ukrainian paralympians on the slopes in zhangjiakou dug deepthe team claimed three golds three silver and a bronze in the biathlon events just days after an arrival in the capital their top official had dubbed a miracle following an arduous journeyhost country china meanwhile grabbed eight medals saturday including two goldukraine made a clean sweep in the mens visionimpaired biathlon race with vitalii lukianenko 43 adding a seventh paralympic gold to his collection and 25yearolds oleksandr kazik and dmytro suiarko claiming silver and bronze respectivelythey are my brothers in sport and brothers in life we are really close to each other lukianenko said after his winhe urged his relatives in the besieged city of kharkiv to remain strongi want to dedicate this medal to the guys who protect our cities he saidin the mens biathlon standing event grygorii vovchynskyi 33 also used his victory to pay tribute to the bravery of ukraines embattled citizensukraine is a big family he saidmy gold medal in my first race is for peace in ukraine for the people in ukraineoksana shyshkova 30 who is visually impaired won the womens sprint title in her category while in the womens standing race liudmyla liashenko finished secondmedals mean nothing compared to the lives of relatives and people who have suffered already through war oksana saida prerace chat to his family helped spur rad taras to the silver in the mens sitting sprint biathlon the teams first medal of the daytheyre safe right now he told afprad said the chaotic leadup to the event had taken a tollthe last week we spent in italy without any equipment we couldnt train we just rested and went walking he saidthe race was really toughhe hopes the performance will help lift spirits back homeits a big honour to wear yellow and blue colours and represent my country he saidukraineborn oksana masters who competes for team usa claimed her sixth paralympic gold since 2012 and dedicated her win in the womens sitting biathlon to her country of birthim so proud to be ukrainian everything i have learned as an athlete resilience fighting and working hard i learned from ukraine she saidthe superstar allrounder cyclist rower biathlete and crosscountry skier won a cycling gold at the tokyo summer paralympics six months ago and said the quick transition back to winter sports had been toughchina found luck on home turf saturday in the biathlon and alpine skiing events on its way to two gold medals three silver and three bronzewhile consistently topping the medal tally at the summer paralympics chinas first medal for the winter paralympics only came in 2018 and it is hoping its