Organising Committee spokesperson Masa Takaya said the mistake was made by the venue announcer who was relaying the countries of the medallists in French inside the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

An apology was also made by the announcer once they had incorrectly identified the Ukrainian team, Takaya added.

Three languages - English, French and Japanese - are spoken during the medal ceremonies at the Olympic Games here.

Fiedina and Savchuk claimed bronze, the country's first Olympic medal in artistic swimming, in the event, won by world champions Svetlana Kolesnichenko and Svetlana Romashina of the ROC.

"It was purely an operational mistake and we apologise for that," Takaya said.

The error is particularly embarrassing for organisers given the tension between Russia and Ukraine, which have been locked in conflict since the former annexed Crimea just after the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

Concerns over a possible escalation had been raised earlier this year when the Russian military made significant movements towards the eastern Ukraine border and into Crimea.

The mistake during the ceremony was criticised by Tatyana Danchenko, the coach of the ROC duet.

"Well, that Russia, that Ukraine for them [the organisers], apparently, is the same," Danchenko said, according to Russia's official state news agency TASS.

Fedina, however, insisted the Ukrainian team were not annoyed about the mistake.

"We heard that we were named incorrectly and the flag was mixed up, but no one pays attention to this," Fedina said.

"The main thing is that everything ended well."

The "neutral" ROC team is competing at these Games as part of the sanctions imposed on Russia by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after state authorities were found to have manipulated doping data at the Moscow Laboratory.