Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has invited International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach to visit the front-line city of Bakhmut, where Ukraine’s soldiers are engaged in vicious battle with Russian forces.

Zelenskyy extended the provocative invitation on Friday after the Olympic committee said a “pathway” should be explored to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part in the 2024 Paris Games.

Russia and its ally Belarus have been excluded from competing in most Olympic sports since the invasion of Ukraine.

“I invite Mr. Bach to Bakhmut. So that he could see with his own eyes that neutrality does not exist,” Zelenskyy said in a speech shared on social media.

“It is obvious that any neutral banner of Russian athletes is stained with blood,” he said.

Bakhmut, in the eastern region of Donetsk, is currently the epicentre of the fighting in Ukraine.

Bach said on Friday that Russian and Belarusian athletes could hope to compete at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, but only if they compete under a neutral flag.

The mission is to bring together athletes from all over the world, “especially when their countries are in conflict,” Bach said during a press briefing in the German town of Oberhof.

“The principle that has been laid down is: No Russian or Belarusian athletes,” Bach explained, but “individual, neutral athletes from these countries without any identification with their nationality” could “possibly” compete next year.