The IOC wants to enable Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in international events again. This angers Ukraine. Former world boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko attacks President Thomas Bach. This supports the Russian propaganda. He asks him to look around in Bucha.
In the debate about the re-admission of Russian athletes, former boxing world champion Wladimir Klitschko asked IOC boss Thomas Bach to get a picture of the war in Ukraine again. "Mr. Bach should go to Bucha. It's time he compared the propaganda from Moscow with the reality on the ground," said Klitschko in an interview with the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung".
After the withdrawal of Russian troops, hundreds of civilian bodies were found in the Kiev suburb of Bucha - some in the middle of the street, with signs of torture and hands tied behind their backs. "These are the pictures whose consequences are at stake," Klitschko warned.
The 46-year-old Ukrainian once again sharply criticized the plans of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to pave the way for athletes from Russia and Belarus to return to the international sports stage. According to the will of the IOC, the athletes would have to start under a neutral flag, make a clear commitment to the Olympic charter and not actively support the war in Ukraine.
"Let's not be fooled. Again, I haven't seen any athletes speak out against the war, especially current athletes," Klitschko said. IOC President Bach, who met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a visit to Kiev last summer, "unfortunately does not represent Olympic values, but the aggressor. He supports the propaganda," said Klitschko. "It can't be that the free world is being told over and over again, 'But what have the athletes got to do with it?' It has everything to do with each other. Sport has a lot to do with the war," said Klitschko.
Even after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014, there were no consequences. "If there are no consequences for Russia, Russia will not rest. That's why there are no ifs and buts. There is no neutrality," warned Klitschko.
