The Russian sports minister said Saturday that Ukraine’s call to ban Russian athletes from the 2024 Paris Olympics, which gathered support from several countries, was “unacceptable”.

“The attempt to dictate the conditions of athletes’ participation in international competitions is absolutely unacceptable,” sports minister Oleg Matytsin was cited as saying by Russian state-run news agencies.

“We see a blatant desire to destroy the unity of international sport and the international Olympic movement.”

Ukraine has reacted furiously to the International Olympic Committee’s announcement last month that it was exploring a “pathway” to allow Russian and Belarusian competitors to take part in the Paris Games, under a neutral flag.

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