President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that he does not believe in a truce with Russia during the Olympics.
He said this in an interview with the famous French journalist-blogger Hugo Travers.
"I do not believe in this with Russia. I do not believe in this format — a truce in general, but in any format of a truce with the Russian Federation. And this is a lie, Emmanuel knows it and he himself is a witness to it. We were together in the "Normandy format", we went through the Minsk process together. France, Germany, Ukraine — we are all living witnesses that there is no frozen conflict with Russia," Zelenskyi replied.
He emphasized that Russia would use such a pause to regroup and strengthen its forces in order to strike again.
As an example, the president cited the months after the "Normandy" negotiations, when there was no actual ceasefire and enemy snipers constantly fired at Ukrainian soldiers along the contact line.
"They trained their snipers, for example. They just went out hunting. We heard all this from the wiretaps that were from our intelligence. A group of 20-30 specialists entered them and killed our people with sniper shots every day for several months. That is, for Putin, there is no truce, no Olympics, no authorities," Zelenskyi said.
- On April 15 , Macron announced that he would seek a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine and between Israel and Hamas in time for the 2024 Olympics. In this matter, he hopes for the help of international partners, in particular China.
- In ancient Greece, during the Olympic Games, all wars stopped and a sacred truce was declared — ekehiria. In the recent history of the competitions, it was the war that stopped their holding three times. Because of the First World War, the 1916 Games did not take place, the Second World War prevented the Olympics in 1940 and 1944.
- The Soviet Union did not stop the war in Afghanistan during the Olympics in Moscow in 1980, and Russia attacked Georgia in 2008 during the games in Beijing.