The conditions of their inclusion include competing without flags, emblems or anthems of their country.

Athletes from those nations were banned following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Letting individuals take part was about “respecting human rights” the IOC said.

However, World Athletics said its position remains unchanged, with athletes, support personnel and officials from Russia and Belarus remaining excluded “from all World Athletics Series events”.

“You may well see some neutral athletes from Russia and Belarus in Paris, it just won’t be in athletics,” World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said on Friday.

Speaking at the World Athletics Council Meeting in Monaco, Coe added: “We have a fixed position. I think it is right that International Federations should make judgements that they feel is in the best interest of their sport. That is what our council has done.”

Ukraine had threatened to boycott the 2024 Games if the ban was not upheld but Ukraine’s sports minister Vadym Huttsait told Reuters in July it could drop that threat if Russian and Belarusian athletes were made to compete under a neutral flag.

The IOC’s decision comes after Olympic sports federations asked for Russian and Belarusian athletes to be allowed to compete as neutrals in Paris earlier this week.

“The executive board of the IOC has decided that individual neutral athletes (AINs) who have qualified through the existing qualification systems of the International Federations on the field of play will be declared eligible to compete at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 in accordance with the conditions outlined,” the Olympic body said on Friday.

“AINs are athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport. The strict eligibility conditions based on the recommendations issued by the IOC executive board on 28 March 2023 for international federations and international sports event organisers will be applied.”

Paris 2024 organisers said they were “taking note” of the IOC’s decision and reiterated that qualification for the Games “falls under the responsibility of the IOC and the International Federations”.

“Paris 2024’s responsibility is to host athletes who have qualified for the Games under the best possible conditions, regardless of their nationality,” organisers said.

‘Strict eligibility conditions’

The IOC outlined six “strict eligibility conditions” for AINs at Paris 2024 reflecting the same conditions under which they have qualified.

It said among the 4,600 athletes who have so far qualified for the Games, only 11 were AINs – eight with a Russian passport, three with a Belarusian passport.

The conditions for their participation are as follows:

• Qualified athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport will be entered as, and compete as AINs.
• Teams of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport will not be considered.
• Athletes and support personnel who actively support the war will not be eligible to be entered or to compete.
• Athletes and support personnel contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies will not be eligible to be entered or to compete.
• Any AIN, like all other participating athletes, must meet all anti-doping requirements.
• The sanctions against the Russian and Belarusian states and governments remain in place, including: No flag, anthem, colours or any other identifications of Russia or Belarus will be displayed in any official venue or function at Paris 2024, and no Russian or Belarusian government or state officials will be invited or accredited.

The IOC recommended to sports federations in March that only individual athletes from Russia and Belarus should be allowed to compete – not teams representing those nations.

It also said athletes and support personnel who actively support the war in Ukraine must remain excluded.

“The protection of the rights of individual athletes to participate in competitions despite the suspension of their National Olympic Committee is a well-established practice, respecting human rights,” the IOC said.

Sports federations had called for the IOC to reach a decision to “bring clarity” to Olympic qualifying events.

The Olympic body was criticised earlier this year for saying it was “exploring a pathway” for Russian and Belarusians to compete at Paris 2024, with the United Kingdom among more than 30 countries to pledge support for an ongoing ban at the time.

The Russian Olympic Committee was suspended by the IOC “with immediate effect until further notice” in October after it recognised regional organisations from four Ukrainian territories illegally annexed by Russia.

Among its considerations in reaching the decision, the IOC said an “overwhelming majority of athletes” did not want to “punish fellow athletes for the actions of their government”.

It also reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Ukrainian athletes “in every way possible, in order to see a strong team from the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine at the Olympic Games Paris 2024”.

The Paris Olympics take place from 26 July to 11 August 2024.

Ballistic and cruise missiles were launched in the Far East and Arctic, the Kremlin said.

The US was told about the drill under the terms of the New Start arms treaty.

The launches took place as Russia makes unsubstantiated claims that Ukraine is plotting to use a “dirty bomb”.

It is an explosive device mixed with radioactive material and the Russian allegations have been widely rejected by Western countries as false.

And Kyiv has warned that the claims indicate Moscow itself could be preparing such an attack.

Ahead of the exercise, military officials in Washington pointed out that, in notifying the US, the Russians were complying with arms control obligations.

Nato is also staging its own nuclear exercises, dubbed Steadfast Noon, in north-western Europe. The Western defensive alliance said training flights involving 14 countries were taking place until Sunday over Belgium, the UK and the North Sea.

Russia’s exercises were being held against a backdrop of a flagging campaign in southern and eastern Ukraine.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was seen on Russian TV saying that the aim of the drill was for military command and control to practise carrying out “a massive nuclear strike by the strategic nuclear forces in retaliation for the enemy’s nuclear strike”.

A Yars inter-continental ballistic missile was launched from Plesetsk cosmodrome, some 800km (500 miles) north of Moscow, and a Sineva ballistic missile was fired from the remote Kura test site in Kamchatka province in Russia’s Far East, the Kremlin said.

All missiles reached their targets, it added.

President Putin was shown on Russian TV watching a video feed of the launch. Footage was also broadcast of remarks he gave via videolink to a conference of regional intelligence services in which he doubled down on his accusations of a Ukrainian dirty bomb plot.

He also repeated other baseless allegations made by Russia in recent months against Ukraine, including that it had been turned by the US into a “testing ground for military biological experiments”.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Wednesday that “my personal opinion is that Putin won’t use nukes”. Separately, he told US TV that Ukraine’s counter-offensive in the south had been hampered by rainy weather.

MORE:

• 2022 WC: Callum Hudson Odoi and other new faces in Black Stars provisional squad

• NPP flagbearership race: Zambian prophet makes shocking revelation [Video]

• Woman killed as mining pit dug under her house collapses

He was seen talking to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and then sitting beside Mr Erdogan’s spokesman.

He is known to have spent weeks in a mediation role, flying between Moscow and Kyiv.

Sources said he and two Ukrainian negotiators suffered symptoms in Kyiv.

The Chelsea football club owner was said to have suffered sore eyes and peeling skin, but had now recovered, reports say.

A Wall Street Journal report suggested he and the Ukrainian negotiators had been targeted by Russian hardliners, but a Ukrainian presidential official later said the two Ukrainians were fine and one had said the story was false.

The talks in Istanbul got under way early on Tuesday, with President Erdogan opening the session calling for a ceasefire and peace: “Prolonging the conflict is not in anyone’s interest,” he told the two delegations at Dolmabahce Palace, urging them to come up with concrete results.

Before the talks began, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country was prepared to declare neutrality, one of Russia’s key demands. However, one of his main negotiators, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, made clear he had instructions that “we do not trade people, land or sovereignty”.

Russian state news agency Ria Novosti released a picture showing Mr Abramovich talking to the Turkish president and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu at the meeting.

Абрамович встретился с Эрдоганом перед переговорами России и Украиныhttps://t.co/ppLsELEJlV pic.twitter.com/AOayvuPdmF

— РИА Новости (@rianru) March 29, 2022

He was also spotted in Turkish TV coverage listening to a translation wearing headphones, sitting alongside Mr Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin. They were not at the main table of the Russian and Ukrainian delegations.

The exact nature of Mr Abramovich’s role is unclear, although the Kremlin said he had played an early mediation role. His yacht Eclipse has been seen moored at the Turkish port of Marmaris in recent days.

The Ukrainian foreign minister told national TV hours before the talks that he had advised his colleagues attending negotiations with Russia not to eat or drink anything.

The court, presided over by Aboagye Tandoh, set the date to afford the prosecution enough time to conclude their investigations into the case.

The accused persons are Farid Isaev, Vadim Potokin, Serhii Chepurniy – all engineers – and Genadiy Rubec, a site manager.

The four appeared before the court yesterday after a failed attempt to charge them last Friday because of the absence of a Russian interpreter.

According to the prosecutor, DSP Cletus Abadanlowra, the accused persons on or about May 22, this year at Manso- Tontokrom in the Amansie Circuit of the Ashanti Region, conspired and did undertake small-scale mining without authority.

However, at the hearing, the four galamsayers, speaking through one Rashida Osmanu, a Russian interpreter, denied the offence.

Emmanuel Kofi Darko, lawyer for the accused persons, who prayed for bail, said his clients are not known to the law, indicating that they are innocent until proven guilty.

He said the accused persons had assured the defence team that they would be present for the trial and would not interfere with further investigations.

According to Mr Darko, all the accused persons were sick and that their continuous detention would only deteriorate their health, although he did not have any medical report to support his assertion.

DSP Abadanlowra, opposing the application for bail, said the prosecution was yet to visit the site.

He stated that the court ought to remand the accused persons to enable the prosecution to investigate the case.

Prosecuting, DSP Abadanlowra said the complainant in the case is a police officer attached to the Lands and Forestry Ministry, while the accused persons are foreigners from Russia and Ukraine respectively, who are resident in Ghana, precisely Tontokrom in the Ashanti Region.

The Minister of Lands and Forestry, John Peter Amewu, recently gave an ultimatum to small-scale mining companies and illegal miners operating in the country to stop their activities till their operations are regulated.

The government banned all forms of small-scale mining in the country till further notice.

On May 22, Mr John Peter Amewu and a team, including the complainant, went on a fact-finding tour at Manso Tontokrom to ensure that the ban was being complied with and in the course of that, they met the accused persons busily engaged in illegal mining without lawful authority.

They were using heavy equipment, which had degraded a vast land nearby, destroying farm crops and cocoa farms of the inhabitants and had polluted their source of drinking water.

The accused persons stated that they were employees of Geo Professional Services GPS), a mining company.