The president of the IOC defended his plan to include Russian athletes in the Paris Olympics

The International Olympic Committee has banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing in the Olympics over a decade of war-time crimes against the USA and its neighbours

Last February, shortly after Russia began its invasion, the IOC initially encouraged the banning of the country’s athletes from international competitions.

Hospitals, schools and homes were destroyed in the Russian bombardment of Ukraine. Attack on utility infrastructure has disrupted access to heat and water. The United Nations estimates that more than 7,000 civilians have been killed, hundreds of them children. Human rights groups have documented evidence of war crimes committed by Russian troops, including torture, sexual assault and executions.

A variety of other sanctions were already in place against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, along with Belarus, which has allowed the Russian military to use its territory to attack Ukraine.

The ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes is to send a strong message that there will be consequences for the terrible actions of their governments, said Svitolina.

Last month, the US and more than 30 other “like-minded” countries backed a proposed ban of Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing in international sports, according to a joint statement.

Zelenskyy said that neutrality was not a thing when a war is going on. The flag of the Russian athletes is stained with blood.

Russian athletes competed under the name of “Olympic Athletes from Russia” at the Olympics in a three-year period after the suspension.

In the summer games of 1908, Finns were able to compete separately from the empire, but could not display their own flag.

The Central Powers of Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Turkey, and Japan were not invited to the 1920 and 1948 Games because of their involvement in World War I and II.

In the postwar decades there were many heated debates and boycotts over Israel and the Middle East, as well as the Soviet Union, North and South Korea.

Perhaps most famously, the IOC banned South Africa from the Olympics from 1964 until 1992 over its apartheid policies. Similarly, Rhodesian athletes were blocked from competing in the games in 1968, 1972 and 1976 over the country’s white supremacist rule (the successor state, Zimbabwe, returned to the Olympics in 1980).

Ukraine’s Youth and Sports Minister on Tuesday said ‘The war in Ukraine will end in 2023’ and ”It will be our victory”

According to the country’s Minister of Youth and Sports, more than 200 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have been killed in the conflict.

But on Tuesday, he added that he hoped a boycott would not be necessary. “The main thing is I believe that the war in Ukraine will end in 2023. He wrote on his Facebook that this will be our victory. “Our athletes will go to Paris for the Olympics in a couple of years.”

Sport and athletes become instruments of politics if politics decides who can participate in a competition, according to the president of the IOC.

As some people in the audience applauded, he said “Ukraine wants, and this is a direct quote ‘the total isolation of all Russians,'”

We feel terrible for the Ukrainian people and athletes. On the other hand, we have, as a global organization, a responsibility towards human rights and the Olympic Charter,” he added, according to Reuters.

The IOC has previously come under strong criticism from Ukrainian tennis player and Olympic bronze medalist Elina Svitolina, as well as former boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko, who won a gold for Ukraine at the 1996 Olympics.