Russian and Belarusian tennis players will be banned from competing at Wimbledon this summer as the sporting world continues to punish athletes as a result of Vladimir Putin‘s invasion of Ukraine.
Russian sport has been ostracised from competing in events such as the upcoming World Cup and the Women’s European Championship while Belarusian athletes have also been punished due to their allegiance to Putin’s Russia.
Wimbledon’s main committee have now joined them and taken a prompt decision to ban Russians and Belarusians from this year’s Championships.
The decision means three of the women’s world top 20 and two of the men’s top 10 will not be competing in London.
Ukrainian forces managed to repel numerous attempted advances as Russian shelling and strikes increased on the Donbas line of control on Tuesday, a British military update said.
On one of the most dramatic days of the war, Moscow hit more than 1,200 targets as it launched its long-feared offensive in eastern Ukraine.
In what is likely to be the definitive battle for Ukraine, Russia tried to break through the 300-mile defensive front line of Kyiv’s forces.
Briefing Cabinet ministers in the morning, Boris Johnson described Ukraine’s predicament as ‘perilous’, with Vladimir Putin seemingly determined to claim victory ‘regardless of the human cost’.
Ministers were briefed by a senior national security official who said the new phase of the war, focusing on the Donbas region, was likely to be ‘an attritional conflict’ which could last ‘several months’.
Russia’s aerial bombardment, which began in the early hours and continued throughout the day, focused on targets around Luhansk and Donetsk, the country’s industrial area producing coal and steel.
Moscow’s defence ministry said ‘high-precision air-based missiles’ had struck 13 Ukrainian positions in the Donbas, including the city of Slavyansk, where 60 Ukrainian military targets were apparently hit.
After a long and heavy bombardment, Putin’s forces then captured the city of Kreminna, leaving – according to local officials – at least 200 civilians dead.
Source: Daily Mail
