Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo made the comments during a trip to kyiv where she visited a training center for Ukrainian athletes.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Saturday that Russian and Belarusian athletes “were not welcome” at this year’s Olympic Games in the French capital.
“I want to tell the Russian and Belarusian athletes that they are not welcome in Paris and tell the Ukrainian athletes and all the Ukrainian people that we support them very strongly,” Hidalgo said in a video published by the Ukrainian YouTube channel United News.
Hidalgo made the comments during a trip to kyiv where she visited a training center for Ukrainian athletes.
Russian athletes can participate in the Paris Olympics, which take place from July 26 to August 11, but only as neutral players.
Russia and Belarus have been banned from participating in the opening ceremony which will take place on the banks of the Seine in the heart of the city.
In response, Moscow launched a furious tirade against the International Olympic Committee, arguing that the IOC’s restrictions on Russian athletes amounted to “neo-Nazism.”
The IOC suspended Russia from the 2024 Games last year, but gave its athletes the green light to compete as neutral countries as long as they do not actively support the Kremlin’s assault on Ukraine.
