Ukraine war: Russian athletes cannot be allowed at Olympics, Zelensky says

• Ukraine has threatened to boycott the Paris 2024 Olympics.
• Mr. Zelensky discussed the matter with French President Emmanuel Macron.
• Mr. Zelensky said, there can be no neutrality in sports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thinks that permitting Russia to compete at the 2024 Olympics in Paris would amount to declaring that “horror is somehow acceptable”.

He stated that he had discussed the matter with French President Emmanuel Macron.

He stressed that Moscow should not be permitted to use the Olympics for propaganda purposes.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that Russian and Belarussian athletes would be able to compete as neutrals in the Olympics.

However, if Russian and Belarussian athletes are allowed to compete, Ukraine has threatened to boycott the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The IOC’s efforts “to bring Russian athletes back into the Olympic Games are attempts to teach the entire world that terror is somehow acceptable,” Mr. Zelensky stated in his nightly video message.

Russia must not be permitted to exploit the Olympics or any other sporting event to promote its aggression or state chauvinism, he added.

The IOC said this week that Russian and Belarusian athletes might compete as “neutral athletes”, noting that “no athlete should be banned from competing solely because of their passport”.

Mr. Zelensky, on the other hand, claims that there can be no neutrality in sports while his country’s players are dying on the battlefield.

He also drew parallels with the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, which were held during the Nazi regime.

“There was a major Olympic mistake,” he said. “The Olympic movement and terrorist states shouldn’t ever,  cross paths.”

The UK government has also denounced the plan to allow athletes to compete neutrally as a “world away from the reality of conflict”.

Mr. Zelensky, on the other hand, claims that there can be no neutrality in sports while his country’s players are dying on the battlefield.

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