President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.
Eastern Europe and Northern Asia are both parts of the Russian Federation. It is the largest nation in the world, with an internationally recognised territory that spans 17,098,246 square kilometres (6,601,670 sq mi)—eight percent of the habitable landmass of the planet.
Ukraine is a nation in Eastern Europe. Its name is pronounced [krjin] (listen) in Ukrainian and Ukranian, respectively. After Russia, which it shares borders with to the east and northeast, it is the second-largest nation in Europe.
Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the takeover of portions of eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian separatists in 2014, there has been fighting between Russia and Ukraine. Thousands of people died as a result of the situation’s escalation into a full-fledged conflict, which also caused a significant humanitarian disaster. Although peace talks and other diplomatic efforts have been undertaken to end the conflict, the situation is still tense and intermittent bloodshed is still occurring.
The threat by Ukraine to boycott the Paris Olympics next summer if Russian and Belarusian athletes are permitted to compete was renewed by the country’s sports minister on Friday. He also stated that his country would continue to rally like-minded allies to support the threat, which represents a serious crisis for the Olympic movement.
Vadym Guttsait, a Ukrainian official, declared that his nation would have to “skip the Olympic Games” if it was unable to persuade international sports officials to ban Russian athletes. As long as the war lasted, according to Guttsait, Ukrainians “did not want to see or meet” Russian and Belarusian athletes competing in international sporting events like the Olympics.
Officials in Ukraine responded strongly to the suggestion and immediately brought up the possibility of a boycott of the Olympics, an idea that has gained support from several of Ukraine’s neighbours as well as significant allies in Western Europe. Poland’s sports minister said on Thursday that he anticipated putting together a coalition of up to 40 nations to oppose permitting Russian and Belarussian athletes to compete at the Paris Games, including those from the Australian , U.K America, Japan, Canada.
Guttsait asked sports administrators, athletes, and others to advocate for a continuing ban up until a final decision is made. He urged the leaders of various sports to get in touch with their international counterparts and announced that on February 10 there would be additional discussions with European sports ministers. He said, “We have to work on everyone.”
