Ukraine today threatened to boycott the 2024 Olympics in Paris if Russian and Belarusian athletes were invited, in retaliation for Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of the country.

The possibility of an invitation was mentioned by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, who said that she would like Russian athletes to compete under a neutral flag. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), for its part, yesterday (25/1) drew up a roadmap for their reintegration into world sport.

“Such a situation is unacceptable for our state,” the Minister of Sports of Ukraine Vadim Gudzeit reacted today. According to him, Kyiv is currently putting pressure on the IOC and other international organizations to remove Russians and Belarusians from the Olympics.

“Our position remains unchanged: as long as the war in Ukraine continues, Russian and Belarusian athletes should not participate in international competitions,” Gudzeit continued on Facebook. “If we are not heard, I do not exclude the possibility of a boycott and refusal to participate in the Olympic Games,” he added.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded that his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, remove the Russians from the next Olympic Games, which are scheduled in less than two years.

For its part, the International Olympic Committee announced yesterday that “no athlete can be excluded from the games on the basis of their passport,” after consultation with representatives of athletes, international federations and national Olympic committees.

RES-EMP source