Ukraine’s World Championship triple jump gold medallist Olga Saladukha and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko have both hit out at the address to world leaders yesterday by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President.

The fear in Ukraine is that it was another step by Bach to announce soon that Russian and Belarussian athletes, currently prevented from competing internationally, will be allowed to take part in some form at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

But in Russia, Chernyshenko claimed it was "an attempt to veil ongoing and clear politically motivated acts by the IOC."

Bach told leaders from the world’s leading economic countries, including Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, that "Olympic sport needs the participation of all athletes who accept the rules, even and especially if their countries are in confrontation or at war."

Lavrov left the meeting shortly after Bach’s speech and was already on his way home to Moscow when Russia launched its biggest wave of missile attacks on Ukrainian cities since the start of the war in February.

Russia fired "around 100 missiles" at cities across the country, targeting power infrastructure in several regions of the country, leaving the supply of electricity in a critical condition, according to senior Ukrainian officials.

During the attack, two civilians in neighbouring Poland were also killed by a missile and there was a major power outage in Moldova.

"IOC President Thomas Bach unequivocally spoke in favour of the return of Russians and Belarusians to international sports arenas," Saladukha, the 2011 world champion and 2012 Olympic bronze medallist, wrote on her Instagram page.

"Under the cannonade of mass shelling of Ukrainian cities and villages.

"When hundreds of missiles were fired at our country, residential buildings and critical infrastructure facilities were hit.

"Perhaps it would be expedient for Mr. Bach to come to Kyiv on one of those days.

"And see for yourself how ‘peace-loving’ Russians are.

"Then he would understand that world sport cannot exist apart from common sense, apart from Olympic principles, apart from respect for international law."

The 39-year-old Saladukha, now a member of the Ukrainian Parliamentary, has called upon authorities in Ukraine to mobilise against the growing movement to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete at Paris 2024.

"I believe that the relevant Ministry and the NOC (National Olympic Committee) should immediately form a consolidated position on the odious statement of Thomas Bach and call on the sports communities of other countries to unite with Ukraine," she wrote.

"Ukraine will never agree to the ‘rehabilitation’ of Russian and Belarusian athletes while their rockets are falling on our heads, while our people are being killed, while our stadiums are being destroyed, while the foot of an enemy soldier is trampling our land."

Chernyshenko, President and chief executive for the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi, interpreted the speech as justification by the IOC to deny Russia the opportunity to compete in international sport.

"The statement from the head of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach during the G20 meeting claiming that international sport should not become a tool for achieving political goals is far from sincere," he told insidethegames.

"Bach's performance at the G20 is little more than a facade, an attempt to veil ongoing and clear politically motivated acts by the IOC.

"The absence of any concrete IOC proposals to ensure the application of this claim during the G20 meeting is direct proof of that.

"In less than a year, thanks to Bach and other functionaries, Russian athletes were suspended from all possible international competitions, and Paralympic athletes were not allowed to attend the [Winter] Games in Beijing when most of them had already arrived in China for training.

"This rhetoric from Bach is no epiphany."