Emmanuel Macron said that Russia will be asked to observe a ceasefire in Ukraine during the Olympics in Paris. The French president said this during an interview broadcast by Ukrainian television and published by a Ukrainian journalist on his YouTube channel on Saturday, Reuters writes.

>> The IOC announced how many athletes from Russia will participate in the 2024 Olympics

“A request for a ceasefire during the Olympics. They (Russians) should do it. It’s always been like that,” the interlocutor said through an interpreter.

“It will be demanded,” Macron says in French, before a translator translates his reply into Ukrainian, “Yes, we will demand.”

“The norm of the host country is to move in step with the Olympic movement. This is a message of peace. We will also abide by the decision of the Olympic Committee,” Macron said.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, saying the Russian government violated the Olympic Truce, which seeks to use the power of sport to promote peace and dialogue.

On Thursday, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee said that the OCR would not boycott this year’s Olympics in Paris, despite restrictions imposed on athletes by the IOC as punishment for the invasion of Ukraine. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Wednesday that she prefers that Russians and Belarusians “not come”.

Russians and Belarusians were initially banned from competing internationally after the invasion, for which Belarus was used as a stage, News.ro reports.