Russian athletes should publicly take a stand against the war in Ukraine to be allowed to take part in the Paris-2024 Olympics, Kiev mayor and former world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko reckoned on Monday.
“Russian and Belarusian athletes cannot take part in the Olympic Games in Paris if they do not say ‘No’ to the war. If they say it publicly, they can, but they are afraid,” he told AFP in an interview Monday.
“To every Russian athlete: tell your government, the Russian president, to stop this senseless war,” added the mayor of the Ukrainian capital, who believes that one cannot be “neutral when people, women, children are killed.”
“You are either for, or against the war,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski repeatedly called for the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Games, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) proposed a roadmap in late January advocating their return under a neutral flag.
In a letter dated January 31, IOC president Thomas Bach denounced Ukrainian threats of boycott in the event of Russian participation, asserting that most national Olympic committees perceive these “pressures” as “extremely unfortunate.”
“I will be happy to invite Thomas Bach to Ukraine so that he can see with his own eyes the destroyed villages, the dead, wounded people,” Vitali Klitschko reacted.
“Either he does not understand, or he plays a game with Russia, I have no explanation”, he added.
Behind Ukraine a hostile front is organized against the Russian presence at the Paris Games. Polish Sports Minister Kamil Bortniczuk said in early February that he expected some 40 countries to oppose the participation of Russians and Belarusians.
Last week, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo visited Kiev, and favored the outright exclusion of Russian athletes “as long as there is war” in Ukraine.