MOSCOW, Jul 16 Former player of Dynamo Kyiv and the Ukrainian national team Viktor Leonenko, in an interview with the SportArena YouTube channel, said that Russian athletes should not be condemned in the context of a special operation in Ukraine, they cannot influence the situation. teams from international matches. The ban will last until the end of the 2022/23 season. «Athletes from Russia are not only not to blame, they simply cannot do anything. They do not decide anything. One person makes decisions there. Why yell at them? It's useless to judge them, they are silent and silent. A lot of athletes got hurt, they were thrown out from everywhere.Is it good for the sport?» — Leonenko said. At the end of February, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended that sports federations not allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in competitions because of the situation in Ukraine. A number of organizations excluded Russians and Belarusians from tournaments under their auspices, and also canceled the competitions in Russia. Other federations have admitted neutral athletes.
