The Wimbledon Tennis Championship is heading to exclude the Russian and Belarus players

The Russian Daniil Medvedev, ranked second in the world in tennis, is facing the risk of missing the British Wimbledon Grand Prix, after the newspaper "The Times" revealed the organizers' tendency to impose a ban on Russian and Belarusian players due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin quickly responded to these reports through its spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, who said, "Once again, they are making athletes hostages of political bias and political intrigue, this is unacceptable."

Russian and Belarusian athletes have been able to participate in the ATP and WTA tournaments under a neutral flag, since the invasion began on February 24.

It was expected that this condition would apply to the remaining three major tournaments, despite the fact that the International Tennis Federation imposed a ban on the teams of the two countries in the Davis Cup for men and Billie Jean King for women.

But "The Times" sources indicated that after two months of negotiations, tournament organizers would prefer a ban on players rather than a compromise offered by the British government.

The offer calls for the likes of Medvedev and last year's semi-finalist, Arina Sabinka, to sign statements not to make comments supportive of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The organizers believe that signing such statements may negatively affect the families of the players involved.

This ban is expected to be imposed on all grass tournaments this summer in Britain, while the Queen's and Eastbourne tournaments of the British Tennis Association said they would follow in the footsteps of Wimbledon.

Medvedev, who climbed to the top of the world rankings for a short period instead of Novak Djokovic, is recovering from surgery to treat a hernia, while only saying, "I want peace around the world."

But Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, formerly ranked number one in the world, was more clear, "It is heartbreaking to see how many innocents have been affected by this violence."

"I've always seen and tested the support of the Russian and Ukrainian people for each other. It's hard to watch the violent separation that is happening right now," the 32-year-old continued.

Belarus, Russia's ally, is seen as facilitating the invasion by allowing troops to cross its border into Ukraine.

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