IOC rejects Ukraine's criticism of admission of Russians to Olympic Games

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has rejected criticism from Ukrainian officials who accused it of war propaganda after the IOC said the Russians could potentially be given the chance to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Source: IOC statement to Reuters

Details: Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the President of Ukraine, said over the weekend that the IOC promotes "violence, mass murder, destruction", and on Monday said that Russia's presence at the Games would mean giving the country a "platform to promote genocide".

Quote from IOC: "The IOC strongly rejects this and other defamatory statements. They cannot serve as a basis for any constructive discussion."

Details: On Monday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, drew attention to the fact that many Russian Olympians have ties to the military, including by representing sports clubs connected to the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation.

"An army that commits atrocities, kills, rapes, loots. This is who the ignorant IOC wants to show up under a white flag, allowing them to compete," Kuleba wrote on Twitter.

Background:

• Last week, the International Olympic Committee welcomed a proposal by the Olympic Council of Asia to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in Asia. This could potentially include Olympic qualifiers, as Russian and Belarusian athletes cannot compete in Europe at the moment.
• On 27 January, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine would launch an international campaign to prevent Russian athletes from participating in the Olympic Games.
• On 28 January, Zelenskyy wrote to the presidents of the world's leading sports federations, urging them to make up their minds about the International Olympic Committee's decision to reinstate Russian athletes in international competitions. 
• At the beginning of January, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, invited IOC President Thomas Bach and other sports officials to Druzhkivka, where the Russians destroyed the Altair ice arena with a missile. Zelensky invited Bach to Bakhmut, which Russian troops are trying to capture.
• IOC President Thomas Bach said that he wants to "explore the possibility" of returning athletes from Russia and Belarus to international sports, even though this could be the reason for Ukraine's boycott of the competition.
• Russia's foreign ministry said any attempt to throw Moscow out of international sports through the war, which they call "special military operation" in Ukraine is "doomed to fail".

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