Ukraine 'to build support for Russia ban' at Olympics

STORY: Vadim Huttsait told Reuters it would be "unacceptable" for Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part under a neutral flag, after the International Olympic Committee opened the door to them competing in qualifiers for the Paris Games.

"This is unacceptable for us, it is impossible for us at a time when the full-scale war is going on, when our athletes, our soldiers are defending our homeland, our land, defending their homes, their families, their parents," he said in an interview.

He spoke in the Sports Ministry in Kyiv, standing by a wall decorated with the portraits of Ukrainian athletes who have been killed in the war launched by Russia last February.

The Russian foreign ministry has said any attempt to squeeze Moscow out of international sport because of what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine is "doomed to fail".