GovWire

Putins devastating war against Ukraine is barbaric and evil, and the UK Government continues to stand firmly with our Ukrainian allies.

In the course of the war, Russia has killed scores of Ukrainian athletes and destroyed Ukraines sporting infrastructure.

The Minister for Sport and I are personally committed to supporting Ukraine in the face of Putins illegal invasion. That is why we took action and led a coalition of 36 countries to protect the integrity of international sport and ensure that athletes representing Russia and Belarus are unable to compete.

It is for the independent international sports bodies, such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC), International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and FIFA, to set the rules for participation in their events. But our position is clear. Putins regime does not deserve to see its athletes line up on the starting blocks of races or stand on podiums during medal ceremonies as representatives of their countries.

This has never been about punishing individual Russian or Belarusian athletes.

What we stand against is athletes competing representing the states of Russia and Belarus.

We continue to vigorously oppose Russian and Belarusian state participation. Our policy has never been a complete and total ban on neutral athletes from Russia and Belarus participating at all. Athletes from Russia and Belarus have been able to compete in the UK as neutral athletes since the invasion. For example, our guidance allowed athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete at tennis competitions under strict neutrality conditions.

Instead, our efforts - and the efforts of our international coalition - have been focused on urging the IOC and IPC to change their approach, apply the strictest neutrality conditions possible and ensure they are implemented rigorously.

After two years of concerted lobbying, they have done that. And the result is that the number of athletes from Russia and Belarus expected to participate in the Olympics is in the tens, not hundreds.

As a result, we have written to the IOC and IPC noting that their final neutrality rules for Paris achieve the widely accepted baseline of ensuring that Russia and Belarus are not represented as states in international sport. Our focus now turns to ensuring these rules are stringently enforced and maintained as long as the war goes on.