(Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that the very fact that Ukraine was participating in the Olympic Games was an accomplishment in wartime and added that the athletes’ presence in Paris would help people back home maintain “normal lives”.
Ukraine is fielding a team of about 140 athletes, the smallest contingent it has sent to the Olympic Games in post-Soviet times.
“It’s already an achievement for Ukrainians that, despite the war and full-scale Russian terror, we have prepared and are participating in the Games,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
“Our flag and anthem will be in France alongside all other nations that respect life and the principles of Olympism.”
Zelenskiy said he had spoken to Ukraine’s Olympians and thanked everyone “who helps Ukraine maintain as many elements of normal life as possible”.
Ukraine has lobbied hard, since the Kremlin’s February 2022 invasion, to ensure athletes from Russia and from Belarus, the Kremlin’s close ally, were barred from taking part in Paris.
Only about 15 Russian athletes will be competing as neutrals, with no flags or anthems permitted and all were subjected to vetting to ensure they had no connection with the Russian military.
Russian officials complained that the restrictions were unfair and discriminatory and several athletes turned down offers to compete as neutrals.
In his remarks, Zelenskiy said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions “have made it so that the only Russian sport today is the killing of people.
“And the world will never tolerate this. Russia must lose in this war and lose in this terror. Then life will be the winner. And we are doing everything with this in mind.”
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksander Kozhukhar, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
