Deriugina, who is also the head coach of rhythmic gymnastics team here, said allowing Russia and Belarus to compete at the Olympic Games is like "sanctions on Ukrainians".

The two-time all-around world champion and her team has been training in Baku for the last one month to prepare for the 2023 European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships.

Last week, the International Gymnastics Federation postponed a decision on re-admitting Russians and Belarusians to July, ruling them out of the European Championships here.

The decision also put a question mark over Russia and Belarusian athletes' chances to qualify for the Olympics is Paris.

"I don’t understand how they [Russia and Belarus] can be allowed to compete if they don’t qualify," Deriugina told insidethegames.   

"They are not here which means they cannot go for the World Championships.

"So how will they go to the Olympics?

"FIG was forced to take this decision to extend until July.

"We won’t participate in Paris 2024 if they are there.

"If there are no sanctions on them, then it’s like there is sanctions on Ukrainians because we will not compete.

"I don’t understand what the International Federations and the International Olympic Committee wants.

"They want Olympics with Russia and Belarus but not Ukraine?"

The 65-year-old former Soviet gymnast also went on to state that there is no concept of neutrality.

According to the eight-time world medallist, all top Russian athletes "are connected to the military".

Russian gymnasts Dina and Arina Averina were shown on stage at a pro-war rally organised by Vladimir Putin last year.

The former is a Tokyo 2020 silver medallist while the latter is a five-time world champion.

Since the invasion of Ukraine began last year, plenty of Russian Olympic athletes have supported the war and have been seen sporting the Z symbol, which represents the Russian military.

Deriugina said these athletes don’t care about the reality, giving the example of Barcelona 1992 bronze medallist Oxana Skaldina, whom she coached.

"She lives in Moscow, and she hasn’t even called me.

"It’s a big propaganda in Russia and they believe what they are told.

"I am from the Soviet system and it still exists in Russia.

"All of the top athletes are connected to the military.

"It’s confusing when the International Federations are allowing neutral athletes because, in the Olympics, it all starts with the passport.

"Where are you from? How does it work? I don’t trust it.

"From Sochi doping scandal, you need to understand that they can fake everything.

"What if the documents for neutrality are also the same?"

Deriugina continued by saying that it is difficult to put in words "what has happened to the nation in the last one year".

Despite the hospitality shown by Azerbaijan, the entire team is looking forward to going home and meeting their families.

The 1978 ball European champion explained how stressful it has been for her athletes to cope with all the new coming from Ukraine.

"After the first bomb exploded, everyone ran away.

"We had to wait a couple of months before we could gather our gymnasts to start training.

"They were all around Europe. We were the only Olympic National Federation to continue training in Kyiv.

"A lot of sports facilities were ruined.

"Many athletes and coaches died. It is a tragedy we will never be able to forget.

"But our facility was not affected. It was not as big as this, but it was home.

"They are all stressed out.

"The kids, the coaches and their parents.

"Especially in the last one and half weeks, there were drone and missile strikes.

"So it’s very bad. I must calm everyone down and the sport was a good distraction for the kids.

"But we are very tired now.

"It’s difficult to be in a different country for so long.

" We are going back to Kyiv after the competition."