Boos were heard as Russian athletes followed the flag into the Milan Cortina opening ceremony - the first winter games the tricolour has appeared at since 2014 in Sochi.
The four-strong delegation waved to the crowd as they paraded at the ancient Arena di Verona in a ceremony boycotted by some nations because of their presence.
Russia was initially banned from the 2016 Summer Paralympics over a state-sponsored doping scandal, and a further ban followed its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
With the suspension now overturned, the Winter Paralympics could see the Russian national anthem played for the first time at a major international sporting event since 2022.
Russia's ally, Belarus, also made a return, with two athletes participating in the parade, having likewise been banned over the 2022 invasion.
There was applause when Ukraine was announced, but no athletes represented the country in the parade after they went ahead with a boycott.
Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Poland and Lithuania also joined their protest.
Iran did not appear after its only competing athlete had to withdraw from the games, having been unable to travel to Italy due to the ongoing conflict with Iran in the Middle East.
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With the games taking place in multiple locations across Italy, many athletes were unable to attend, and only 45 of the more than 600 competing represented their nations at the ceremony.
The Milan Cortina games, which mark the 50th anniversary of the Winter Paralympics, will see athletes competing across 79 events in six sports.
The Metropolitan Police said an investigation involving multiple countries was ongoing after "several fires involving cargo".
The fire at a DHL depot in Birmingham in July 2024 has been linked to other incidents on the continent.
A 38-year-old Romanian national was arrested in the UK last year on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence agency. He was released, but remains under investigation.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans said Russian military intelligence is believed to be responsible.
Four parcels were sent from Lithuania to addresses in the UK and Poland in July 2024, a joint statement from European investigators revealed.
One caught fire in transit at Leipzig airport, where it was about to be loaded on to a plane, another exploded inside a truck in Poland, one was seized intact, and the other was the Birmingham incident.
"Test packages" were also sent to the US and Canada, while two more parcels bound for North America were intercepted in Amsterdam.
Twenty-two suspects have now been identified in Lithuania and Poland suspected of working on behalf of Russian military intelligence, according to Eurojust, the judicial arm of the EU.
The agency said the alleged perpetrators were recruited and given instructions through an online messaging service.
Investigators said tasks were divided among several suspects, who were often rewarded with cryptocurrency payments.
They came from various Slavic and Baltic nations, and were "often in a vulnerable socio-economic situation", according to Eurojust.
Two of them now face trial, with courts expected to hear their cases later this year.
All told, five nations - UK, Germany, Netherlands, Poland and Lithuania - took part in the investigation: .
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DAC Evans said: "The strength of cooperation in this case has led us to collectively identify what we believe to be Russian military intelligence involvement in a series of incidents across Europe.
"Our investigation is ongoing, and we continue to liaise closely with partners to ensure we're doing all we can to keep the sector, and the public safe.
"We have been clear and open about the increasing levels of demand we're seeing relating to the activity of foreign states here in the UK."
While there are often briefings out of cabinet and Parliamentary Labour Party meetings, revealing details of top-secret talks held by the NSC "should be a red line", the former deputy Labour leader said.
Her comments on Sky's Electoral Dysfunction podcast come after intimate details of NSC deliberations held just preceding and following the beginning of the US-Israeli war on Iran were revealed by The Spectator.
The magazine reported that at a meeting last Friday, Sir Keir Starmer wanted to allow the US to use British bases for political reasons, but was blocked by four cabinet ministers, led by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.
The prime minister then agreed to it for defensive purposes on Sunday after the US made a formal request the previous day.
Although Sir Keir has said there was not a "specific decision to be made" on the Friday, the government has not denied the story, so this appears to be the first leak of top-secret NSC deliberations since 2019.
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Speaking to our political editor Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Baroness Harman hit out at the leaker or leakers, saying national security discussions need to be held in private.
She said: "The prime minister has got to be able to go to his NSC and discuss issues with colleagues - that's how government functions."
'Red line' has been crossed
Details of cabinet meetings and weekly meetings of Labour MPs often leak, and although Harman "disapproves" of that, "it's not the end of the world".
"But there should be a real red line against briefing out of National Security Council," she continued.
"It's particularly worrying because it seems the briefing is not criticising the decision. They're supporting the decision, but they're just saying it wasn't Keir Starmer's original decision - he was just overridden by other members of the cabinet.
"So I think it's utterly dysfunctional and destructive, and I thoroughly disapprove of it. I'm really dismayed about it.
"Any prime minister needs to be able to discuss with the cabinet colleagues in the NSC and actually not be undermined."
Former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson agreed, saying the NSC should be "a sacrosanct space where the most top-level security people" are "able to discuss things and make decisions in the national interest".
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Leaks from the NSC are rare, and the last time conversations appeared in the media was in 2019, when contents of two meetings were published in newspapers.
In September that year, details of an NSC meeting about bringing back the British children of Islamic State fighters in camps in northern Syria were published by the Mail On Sunday.
Before that, in April, details of an NSC meeting about whether Chinese firm Huawei should be involved in the UK's 5G network were published in The Daily Telegraph.
Then prime minister Theresa May launched an internal leak inquiry, which led to the firing of the then defence secretary, Sir Gavin Williamson, although he denied being responsible.
Downing Street has not said if Sir Keir has launched an inquiry after the leak of last week's NSC meetings.
The US and Israel launched a crippling air campaign on Saturday, devastating Iran's security forces across the country, particularly in the Kurdish areas bordering Iraq.
In recent days, Kurds inside Iran say even small outposts belonging to Iranian security forces have been flattened.
Could this ultimately pave the way for a cross-border operation by a coalition of Iranian Kurdish groups?
Iran war latest - follow live updates
For security reasons, none of the groups can reveal how many active members they have, but it is estimated that all the parties together have around 5,000-10,000 fighters.
This number does not include Iraqi-Kurdish fighters, who would not necessarily take part.
Iranian-Kurdish groups have extensive secret coordination cells inside the Kurdish region in Iran, and even in Tehran itself.
Potential to inspire uprising
Sources within the groups say that if Peshmerga fighters - security forces in the Kurdistan region - cross the border from northern Iraq into Iran, these networks and their supporters would join the fighters in securing the Kurdish region.
Some even believe that this could inspire an uprising by non-Kurdish Iranians.
"If the Peshmerga secure the Kurdish region, thousands of non-Kurdish Iranians will join them to finally free Iran," one resident in Tehran said.
The Iraqi Kurds have been put in a difficult position. The US is a critical partner for the Kurdish authorities in Iraq, providing political as well as military support in terms of training, equipment and funding to the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces.
But the Iraqi Kurdish authorities also have cordial diplomatic and commercial relations with Iran. Indeed, Kurdish officials, including President Nechirvan Barzani, say they will not allow their territory to be used to launch an attack on their neighbour.
Tehran said that it will not tolerate any incursion from Iraqi Kurdistan, and will target the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) if this happens.
Who are these Iranian Kurdish groups that could act as boots on the ground inside Iran?
Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI)
Established in 1945, KDPI is the oldest party, and has widespread support across the Kurdish area in Iran.
The party's manifesto, which called for autonomy for Kurdistan and democracy for Iran, has championed an autonomous region for the Kurds inside a united Iran that is secular and democratic.
The KDPI and another leftist group, Komala, tried to negotiate with the regime in Tehran after 1979 to secure equal rights for the Kurds.
But the negotiation broke down, and KDPI and Komala launched an insurgency which lasted from 1980 to 1988, when the Kurdish groups were forced out of Iran into Iraqi Kurdistan, where they have been ever since.
The leader of the group, a professor of economics called Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, was assassinated by Iranian agents posing as peace negotiators in Vienna in 1989.
In recent years, the IRGC has fired several barrages of ballistic missiles and suicide drones at the camps of the KDPI and other Kurdish opposition groups in Iraqi Kurdistan, killing dozens of fighters and their family members.
Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK)
PAK is a radical Kurdish party established in the early 1990s in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The founder, Saeed Yazdanpanah, was killed by Iranian intelligence operatives in the 1990s as part of an assassination campaign by the IRGC and Iran's intelligence ministry in Iraq.
The group is a strong ally of the Iraqi Kurdistan's ruling party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by President Masoud Barzani.
The PAK Peshmerga have a reputation as fierce warriors, and were a part of the international coalition against Islamic State. They received training and weapons from the American-led coalition.
Komala Party (Komala)
The party, which operates under three branches, is a leftist-nationalist party established in 1979 in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution.
The group set a precedent in 1979 for recruiting thousands of young Kurdish women into its ranks, and fought bloody battles against the IRGC.
Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK)
The PJAK was established in 2004 by Iranian Kurdish members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Kurdish students from inside Iran. The PKK had fought the Turkish state for over four decades.
At least 300 members of the group had just returned from Syria, where they fought against ISIS as part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) affiliated with the US-led coalition.
The PJAK has operated small units deep inside the Kurdish areas for years, living in the rugged Kurdish mountains.
In 2011, PJAK fighters clashed with the special forces of the IRGC known as Saberin Units in the Qandil mountains straddling the Iran-Iraq border and inflicted heavy casualties on the IRGC.
The group is based in the border areas in Sulaymaniyah province in a network of sophisticated tunnels in the mountains, which has protected them from Iranian missiles and drones.
"It would take us less than three hours to take, for instance, Marivan city," one official from PJAK said, referring to a border city in the Kurdish region.
"But we need to make sure that our people will be safe once we take the cities, and that means US air cover for Kurdish fighters."
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Several hundred fighters said to be ready to cross the border are Iranian-Kurdish veterans of the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, who fought closely alongside US, British and French special forces.
And Kurdish sources say that hundreds of former Peshmerga fighters have returned from Europe, the UK and even North America to take part in any potential operation.
Thousands of light arms have been smuggled into the Kurdish areas in Iran in recent years, a Kurdish intelligence official noted.
When asked about whether the CIA and Mossad have provided weapons to the Kurds, the official added that they are not a proxy of any country, and are fighting for equal rights in Iran.
"The most important thing right now is close air support for the Peshmerga once they cross back into Iran," they said.
Another official from one of the other Iranian-Kurdish groups said the short-range ballistic missiles that Iran still retains could rain fire on Kurdish areas if the US does not provide air support, making any mission into Iran suicidal without that agreement.
The body of Dimitrios Tsavdaris, 55, was found in the foetal position inside a "cuckoo" flat in Hackney, north London, after weeks of violent attacks, the Old Bailey was previously told.
He had been taken there from the home of Bamidele Fawehinmi in Wickford, Essex, where he allegedly slept on a mattress in a garage beside American pitbull cross-breed dogs.
The victim was a frail "vulnerable person", weighing just over eight stone, who may have been dead or dying for several days before his body was discovered on 29 January 2024, jurors heard.
He had sustained multiple fractures to his ribs, face and breastbone, as well as internal injuries and old and new bleeding on the brain.
On Thursday, partway through his retrial at the Old Bailey, Fawehinmi, 33, from Haringey, north London, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and causing grievous bodily harm.
He was remanded into custody to be sentenced on 8 May.
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Detective Superintendent Kelly Allen, who headed the Metropolitan Police's investigation, said: "I cannot imagine the pain and suffering Dimitrios must have gone through in the final weeks of his life, enslaved by Bamidele Fawehinmi and living in fear for his life.
"Dimitrios was a frail man who did not pose a threat to Fawehinmi. His initial claim in police interview that he acted in self-defence is utterly preposterous, and the words of a coward.
"Fawehinmi is a violent bully, who preyed on vulnerable people to exploit them for his own gain.
"His conviction will not erase the pain felt by Dimitrios's family, but I hope the fact he will spend a significant period of time behind bars brings them some small sense of justice."
The victim, known as Jimmy, had worked as a chef and taxi driver before his world "unravelled" following his brother's sudden death some years ago.
The flat where he died had been "cuckooed" by the defendant, who took it over from another man and used it for drug dealing, it was alleged.
The victim had been attacked at this property, and the defendant's home some 30 miles away in Essex, the court heard.
Ms Carberry told jurors: "There Dimitrios slept on a mattress on the floor of the garage where the defendant kept his dogs."
He was already badly injured when he was taken to Hackney by the defendant a week before his body was discovered, she said.
Ms Carberry added: "The police were alerted to Dimitrios' death by this defendant's own father who, upon learning from his son that there was a dead body in a flat associated with him, did the right thing and reported it to the police.
"Meanwhile his son, knowing he had killed a man, tried to flee the country via Heathrow airport to Lagos in Nigeria."
The victim had been told to look after the defendant's dogs, with 14 puppies seen in the garden at one point, the court heard.
Police found Mr Tsavdaris's blood at the Wickford property, and in the Kia car the defendant used to move him to Hackney, the court was told.
The defendant had previous convictions for criminal damage and common assault in 2015, and he admitted to selling crack cocaine.
At an earlier trial last year, Fawehinmi admitted hitting and elbowing Tsavdaris, and potentially causing injuries to his rib and sternum during a fight, but claimed he acted in self-defence after his hair was pulled.
Fawehinmi was acquitted of murder at his first trial, but ordered to stand trial on the other charges against him.