Olympic truce:

Ceasefire? What Zelensky and Putin say

Volodymyr Selenskyj (l.) and Vladimir Putin (Bild: Ukrainian Presidental Press)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin have independently commented on the French idea of a ceasefire during the Summer Olympics in Paris. At the end of his state visit to China, Putin said that Chinese party and state leader Xi Jinping had approached him on the subject. Zelensky told the online newspaper "Ukrajinska Pravda" that the details of the initiative were not clear to him.

Speaking to journalists, Zelensky expressed fears that Russia could use the opportunity to move more military equipment towards Ukraine. The Kremlin had also previously expressed doubts about such an initiative, as Ukraine could use the period of the games from July 26 to August 11 to further arm its armed forces and regroup for war.

Reproach to the West
Putin himself did not comment further on the content of his conversation with Xi Jinping. However, he criticized the West for demanding that Russia adhere to an Olympic truce, but not adhering to the Olympic idea itself by excluding Russian athletes.

Vladimir Putin criticized the exclusion of Russian athletes.(Bild: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)

Selensky again said that there had already been a ceasefire, but that it was not working with the Russian enemy. He also raised the question of "who will ensure that their forces do not advance towards us during a ceasefire". It is possible to move technology during this time and then launch an attack, the president warned. "So I don't understand the details. It sounds like a non-viable story to me so far."

Volodymyr Selensky(Bild: APA/AFP/PETRAS MALUKAS)

Sporting competition instead of war
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had explained that there were no concrete official proposals from Paris on how to proceed. The idea of Olympic peace dates back to antiquity, but was also adopted as an idea when the Games were revived in modern times. All hostilities should cease during the sporting event. However, this rule has been violated several times in the past. The Olympic Games were canceled during the First and Second World Wars. They should have been held in Berlin (1916), Tokyo (1940) and London (1944). The Olympic Games of the modern era go back to an initiative of the French nobleman Pierre de Coubertin. He argued that the youth of the world should compete in sporting competitions instead of fighting each other on battlefields.