Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the idea of a truce with Russia during the upcoming Paris Olympics, which will be held from July 26 to August 11.

French President Emmanuel Macron proposed a truce in a recent call with Zelensky. “Let’s be honest … Emmanuel, I don’t believe it,” Zelensky said he told the French president, according to AFP.

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“Who can guarantee that Russia will not use this time to bring its forces to our territory?” he said. “We are against any truce that plays into the hands of the enemy.”

Zelensky rejected the idea of a truce as Russia is making gains in a new offensive it launched in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv oblast and elsewhere along the eastern front.

He claimed that a truce would give Russia an “advantage” and said there would be a “risk that they will bring heavy equipment to our territory and no one will be able to stop them.”

However, a truce would also give Ukraine time to build up its defenses and for more Western weapons to be shipped to the country. Zelensky has blamed Russia’s success in Kharkiv on delays in military aid from the US, although soldiers say Ukraine failed to build proper defensive lines.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he discussed the idea of an Olympic truce with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He said he agreed with the principles of a truce and the Olympic games in general but then criticized Olympic authorities for not allowing Russian athletes to compete under their flag or use the Russian national anthem.

🇺🇦 “We are against any truce that benefits the enemy,” Zelensky refused Macron’s proposal for an Olympic truce. pic.twitter.com/ifk7QWHneY

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) May 18, 2024

“The principles of Olympism, including the Olympic truce, are very much correct,” Putin said, according to the Russian news agency TASS. “However, the issue at hand is that international sports officials are breaching these principles today and violate the core nature of the Olympic Charter. They keep politicizing sports themselves and this is inadmissible.”