Vadym Guttsait, UFF President, used a second letter in little more than a week to Interim President Emmanuel Katsiadakis and other senior International Fencing Federation (FIE) officials to allege that the Russian team was being used for propaganda purposes.

Guttsait - who is also Ukraine’s Sports Minister - urged fencing leaders to "please pay attention, that Russian politics uses their national team as part of propaganda".

He went on: "The Ukrainian Fencing Federation urges you not to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes [to] take part in international competition, even under the neutral flag, to ensure Olympic Ideals, as call for peace and stop the war."

The pretext for this second letter appears to be the recent announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin of a "partial mobilisation" of army reservists, in a move described by the Financial Times as a "dramatic escalation" of the continuing conflict.

Guttsait also claimed that the reservists' call-up would "inevitably lead to an escalation in the war that Russia is waging in Ukraine against the Ukrainian people".

The UFF President continued: "The President of Russian Olympic Committee, Stanislav Pozdnyakov commented on the possible conscription of athletes in the army for partial mobilisation and has stated that the country’s athletes should be honoured to fight in the war of Ukraine after Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilisation of troops."

This was an allusion to Pozdnyakov’s recent comment, as reported by Russian state-run news agency TASS, that "from the point of view of the Russian Olympic Committee, we, being citizens of the country, consider service to the motherland is an honourable duty and an honourable duty of every citizen, including members of national teams".

Claimed Guttsait: "A big number of Russian fencers are athletes of Central Army Sport Club.

"It means that they directly are supported and sponsored by their Ministry of Defense.

"None of them will say anything against Russian aggression."

The mobilisation announcement has triggered significant public alarm and anger in Russia, in spite of heavy penalties for opposing the war.

Thousands of Russians have attempted to flee the country, with long lines of cars reported at Russian land borders with Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

insidethegames has contacted the FIE seeking comment on the letter.