Volodymyr Zelensky is angry with the IOC. He denounced the “hypocrisy” of the International Olympic Committee, which despite repeated calls from Kyiv to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Olympic Games scheduled for Paris, to participate under a neutral banner on Wednesday “studied” the possibility of authorizing them.

The Ukrainian president has invited IOC chief Thomas Bach to visit Bakhmut, one of the hottest points of the war, “so that he can see with his own eyes that neutrality does not exist”.