President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted the principled position of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo on the non-admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes to the 2024 Olympics.

Hidalgo visited the International Summit of Cities and Regions in Kyiv on Thursday, and at a meeting with Zelenskyy, she said that "Russian athletes cannot be accepted in Paris if there is a war."

“I especially want to note the absolutely principled position - and so congruent with Ukrainian - of the Mayor of Paris regarding the protection of the Olympic Movement from Russian ideologization and propaganda,” the president said.

According to him, “it is obvious that a terrorist state will do everything to justify itself through sports or to use the international Olympic Movement to support its aggression. That is why it is important that, as long as the aggression continues, the Russian state does not have any access to sports, Olympic venues. In particular, to the Paris venue – it is this city that will host the 2024 Olympics.”

“Today, the Mayor of Paris once again confirmed that she sees no place for representatives of the aggressor state in Paris as long as the aggression continues. This is a clear and important signal, thank you for it,” Zelenskyy said.

It would be great, he noted, “if exactly such signals were heard in the International Olympic Committee, where, unfortunately, the personal benefit of individual bureaucrats dominates the Olympic principles.”