Russia will be asked for ceasefire during Olympics, Macron tells Ukraine interviewer

KYIV - Russia will be asked to observe a ceasefire in Ukraine during the Paris Olympics, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview from Paris shown on Ukrainian television and posted by a Ukrainian journalist on her YouTube channel on March 16.

"The demand for a ceasefire during the Olympics. They (the Russians) must do this. That is what has always happened," the interviewer said, speaking through an interpreter.

"It will be requested," Mr Macron says in French before a voiceover interpretation gives his response in Ukrainian as, "Yes, we will ask for it."

"The rule of the host country is to move in step with the Olympic movement," the interpreter quoted him as saying. "This is a message of peace. We will also follow the decision of the Olympic Committee."

Paris will host the Summer Games from July 26 till Aug 11.

The International Olympic Committee condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, saying the Russian government had breached the Olympic Truce, which aims to harness the power of sport to promote peace and dialogue.

On March 14, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee said the ROC would not boycott this year's Paris Olympics, despite restrictions on athletes imposed by the IOC as punishment for the invasion of Ukraine.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told Reuters in an interview on March 13 that she preferred that Russians and Belarusians "don't come". Russians and Belarusians had initially been banned from competing internationally in the wake of the invasion, for which Belarus has been used as a staging ground.

ALSO READ: Russian missiles kill 20 in Odesa, Zelenskiy vows retaliation