President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has spoken out categorically against the return of Russian athletes to international competitions, including under a neutral flag.

"I spoke today with Head of the International Olympic Committee [Thomas] Bach. In particular, the fact that the principles of the Olympic movement definitely do not provide for the connivance of terrorist states. Any ideas on how to bring Russian representatives back to international competitions are ideas on how to let the perpetrators of terror tell their society that the world supposedly forgives terror," Zelensky said in a video statement on Wednesday.

"This is a sports indulgence. This is how it will be presented by Russian propaganda if the International Olympic Committee misses the mark and allows those who represent war and nothing else to participate in sporting events on an equal basis with others," Zelensky said.

According to him, he does not want to understand whether there are any motives behind such ideas about the return of Russia. "But no one will turn a blind eye to any attempt to reduce international pressure on the source of the wars," the president said.

"When we receive such reports as today from Kherson, where a child, a boy, died from another Russian shelling... He was eight years old... We can only say one thing: a white or any neutral flag is impossible for Russian athletes, all their flags are stained with blood," he said.