“Russian and Belarusian athletes cannot participate in the Olympic Games in Paris if they don’t say ‘no’ to war. If they say it publicly, they can do it, but they feel afraid,” Klitschko declared in an interview with AFP.
And the mayor of the Ukrainian capital added, “To every Russian athlete, tell your government, the Russian president to stop this absurd war,” considering that it cannot be “neutral when people, women and children are killed.”
And he added, “You are either with or against the war.”
And at a time when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called for the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Olympics, the International Olympic Committee proposed at the end of January a roadmap calling for their participation under a neutral flag.
In a letter dated January 31, German IOC President Thomas Bach also denounced Ukraine’s threats to boycott in the event of Russian participation, stressing that such “pressure” is considered “extremely unfortunate” by several NOCs.
Within this context, Klitschko responded to Bach’s statement, “I would be very happy to invite Thomas Bach to Ukraine so that he could see the destroyed villages, the people who were killed, or injured,” adding, “He does not understand, or (maybe) play some games with Russia, not I have no explanation.”
In order to support Ukraine’s demands, an anti-Russian front is being organized in the Paris Olympics, where Polish Sports Minister Kamil Bortnyschuk said in early February that he expected about 40 countries to oppose the participation of Russians and Belarusians.
During a visit to Kiev last week, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said she supported the complete exclusion of Russian athletes “as long as there is war” in Ukraine.
© 2023 AFP
