Ukraine has been urged by the International Olympic Committee to drop threats of boycotting the Paris 2024 Olympics if Russian and Belarusian athletes compete.
Ukraine is hoping to gain international support for a ban on athletes from the two countries over Russia’s invasion.
The IOC earlier said it will explore a pathway for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals.
IOC president Thomas Bach has told Ukraine’s Olympic Committee that such threats are “extremely regrettable”.
In response, Athletes for Ukraine accused the IOC of being on the wrong side of history.
In a letter from Bach to Ukraine’s sports minister, who is also president of its Olympic Committee, the IOC president says comments from Ukrainian officials suggesting allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes would promote the war are defamatory.
Bach added that threatening a boycott is premature because the IOC has not discussed the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes as neutrals in concrete terms yet.
He also accused Ukraine of pressuring international federations, IOC members and future Olympic hosts in an attempt to publicly influence their decision making and claims this has been perceived by the vast majority of them as, at the very least, extremely regrettable.
Bach said Ukrainian athletes have the unanimous support of the Olympic movement and that we all feel the pain and suffering of the Ukrainian people in this cruel war.