Huttsait confirmed Ukraine's initial interest to host the event in December but acknowledges that it will be an enormous challenge.

"Only in the last two years we have started the real construction of infrastructure for summer sports," said Huttsait, who won gold in the team sabre fencing event at Barcelona 1992, as reported by Interfax.

"Yes, we do not have enough infrastructure for winter sports and we are working on it, we see where to build, where to spend.

"We are now looking at how to start and conduct the Winter Olympics in Ukraine in 2030.

"We are working on this."

Huttsait previously expressed a desire to bid for the 2028 Winter Youth Olympics on top of the 2030 Games.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is determined for the country to host an Olympic Games for the first time in its history.

Lviv bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics but withdrew in June 2014 because of political difficulties centred around friction between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists, after the disappearance and overthrow of former President Viktor Yanukovych.

Ukraine's current interest in the Games has echoes of the ill-fated 2022 bid, as tension between Ukraine and Russia is once again top of the global political agenda.

Russia now has up to 190,000 troops stationed around Ukraine in what Western nations say is the most significant military mobilisation in Europe since the Second World War.

Separatists in eastern Ukraine have called on residents to flee to Russia amid growing fears a major conflict could be imminent.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and United States vice-president Kamala Harris are among the world leaders attending the ongoing Munich Security Conference where the Ukraine crisis is top of the agenda, but Russia is absent.

Among Russia's demands is that Ukraine not be permitted to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as it seeks to maintain a sphere of influence.

Interest in staging the 2030 Winter Olympics in heating up, although Sapporo in Japan is still considered the frontrunner.

A recent revision of Sapporo's plans if it were successful included a ¥90 billion (£595 million/$793 million/€702 million) reduction in costs.

The Canadian Olympic Committee and Canadian Paralympic Committee have thrown their weight behind an indigenous-led bid, with four First Nations proposing locations in British Columbia including Vancouver and Whistler.

A Salt Lake City-Utah Bid Committee is interested in staging the Winter Olympics, either 2030 or 2034, while there is also interest from Barcelona and the Pyrenees.

The National Olympic Committees of Spain and Bosnia and Herzegovina met earlier this month to discuss the notion of Sarajevo - the 1984 Winter Olympic host - staging sliding events, with the bulk of the other action taking place in Catalonia, more than 1,000 kilometres away.