The Dutch basketball team will go ahead and play their world cup qualification match against Russia on Thursday afternoon, despite the invasion of Ukraine, the Dutch basketball union said in a statement on Thursday.

The match is due to take place in Perm, in the far east of Russia, and the team ‘feels safe’, team manager René Vlaanderen told NOS.

The flight back is planned for Friday morning and the ‘maximum safety measures’ would be taken to get everyone safely back to the Netherlands, the association said.

Cancel the game ↘️ https://t.co/z6u2ffyjC9

— Marietje Schaake (@MarietjeSchaake) February 24, 2022

‘At the same time, there is of course a moral aspect and the players and staff feel extremely uncomfortable about the situation,’ the association said.

Nevertheless, the sport itself would not call for a boycott. ‘If sport becomes part of a wider international boycott which is supported by the Netherlands, then we will follow it,’ the association said.