Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski has once again rejected the proposal of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the participation of Russian athletes under a neutral flag, and recalled that the Russian Army already invaded Crimea in 2014 without the need to display national symbols and banners.
«Russian occupiers destroy normal life without any symbols; this is how the Russian aggression began. Our Crimean peninsula was occupied by Russian soldiers without any insignia,» the Ukrainian leader asserted in a statement published on the presidential website.
He also stressed that Russia has loaded with «genocidal ideology» several letters of the Latin alphabet – Z and V – an alphabet alien to the Cyrillic alphabet used in the Russian language but which has served Moscow to expand its «racism» regardless of the specific color used.
In fact, Zelenski has uncovered that the invading Russian troops would have given white armbands to the Ukrainian population in the occupied zones «supposedly so as not to be killed», however this population has suffered torture and has been executed by the Russian soldiers in spite of these badges.
With these references, the Ukrainian president has once again emphasized that it is not necessary for Russian and Belarusian athletes to carry national banners to sponsor the ideology and aspirations of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
«If representatives of a terrorist state appear at competitions (…) will it matter if they are there without their patriotic symbols?», questioned Zelenski, who then answered himself by asserting that «the mere presence» of Russians is «a manifestation of violence and anarchy».
Finally, in his umpteenth appeal for international collaboration to stop the Russian invasion, Zelenski asserted that safeguarding the values of respect and peaceful life should be the main task of the international community, while Russia has chosen «the path of terror» which «has no place in the civilized world».
«If Olympic principles are destroyed and Russian athletes are allowed to participate in any competition or in the Olympic Games, it is only a matter of time before the terrorist state forces them to play along with the propaganda of war,» Zelenski said, concluding that «terror and Olympism are two opposites.»
KILLED UKRAINIAN ATHLETES On the other hand, the President of Ukraine referred to the 228 Ukrainian athletes who have lost their lives since the outbreak of the war, thus making his own an argument already used previously by the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dimitro Kuleba.
At the time Kuleba, and now Zelenski, have denounced that hardly any Russian sportsmen have spoken out to «condemn the terror unleashed by their state.» «There are only a few isolated voices that are fading fast,» the Ukrainian leader said.
He has also put on the table the link between the Russian Army and some national sports federations, since «many athletes» from the Eurasian country also have a «military rank» in the Armed Forces.
«We know that many Russian athletes were associated with the sports clubs of the Russian Army and state security agencies. Including athletes who competed in championships and Olympic Games,» Zelenski has remarked.
«If assassinations and missile attacks were Olympic sport, then we already know which national team would take the first place,» he concluded.
The IOC confirmed several days ago its intention to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in sports competitions under a neutral flag in order to avoid discrimination on the basis of origin and nationality.
This proposal has sparked criticism not only from Ukraine, but also from many of its partners, including the Baltic countries, Poland and even the United Kingdom. Some of them have even called for a boycott of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
