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The IOC's executive said on Friday that Russian and Belarusian
national flags should not be displayed at international sports
events following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
On Monday, the IOC's executive board went further and
recommended sports federations to ban Russian and Belarusian
athletes and officials from competing in events, but Svitolina
made her feelings known before the latest release.
"We Ukrainian players requested to ATP, WTA and ITF to follow
the recommendations of the IOC to accept Russian or Belarusian
nationals only as neutral athletes, without displaying any
national symbols, colours, flags or anthems," Svitolina said.
"Accordingly, I want to announce that I will not play tomorrow
in Monterrey, nor any other match against Russian or Belarusian
tennis players until our organizations take this necessary
decision."
In a separate but similar statement earlier on Monday, Ukrainian
women's tennis players including Marta Kostyuk and Lesia
Tsurenko called on the WTA to pull all tournaments from Russia
following the invasion of Ukraine.
Athletes from Ukraine and other nations have urged international
bodies to take action after Russia launched its invasion by
land, air and sea last week following a declaration of war by
President Vladimir Putin.
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation" that
it says is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its
southern neighbour's military capabilities and capture what it
regards as dangerous nationalists.
"We Ukrainian tennis players would like to express our great
surprise and dissatisfaction with the lack of any response with
the situation with our motherland," the statement said.
"It is especially strange that in prior cases of social
injustice and sexual harassment the response of WTA was prompt,
appropriate and bold.
"We demand that WTA immediately condemn Russian government, pull
all tournaments out of Russia and approach ITF to do the same.
Stop the war. Stop Russian aggression. Bring peace to our homes.
Be human."
The WTA did not immediately respond to an emailed request for
comment.
On Sunday, the Ukrainian Tennis Federation urged the sport's
governing body the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to
immediately expel Russia and Belarus from the organisation and
ban Russia from team and individual tournaments.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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