Ukraine says it will do everything to make Belarusian athlete's husband feel safe

Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya talks with police officers at Haneda international airport in Tokyo, Japan August 1, 2021. REUTERS/Issei Kato/Files

KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine is in contact with the husband of Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who became embroiled in a dispute with her country at the Olympic Games, after he entered Ukraine this week, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday.

Tsimanouskaya took refuge in the Polish embassy in Tokyo on Monday, a day after refusing her team's orders to board a flight home from the Olympic Games. Warsaw offered her a humanitarian vvisa. Her husband Arseni Zhdanevich travelled to Ukraine.

"We provide the necessary assistance during his stay in Ukraine and will do everything to make him feel safe, even in spite of the shocking news," Kuleba said in a tweet, apparently alluding to the death of a Belarusian activist on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Matthias Williams and Natalia Zinets; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions -
https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html