MELBOURNE (Reuters) -Russian&nbsp;and Belarusian&nbsp;flags&nbsp;have been&nbsp;banned&nbsp;from the Melbourne Park precinct during the&nbsp;Australian&nbsp;Open&nbsp;after&nbsp;a&nbsp;complaint&nbsp;from the&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;ambassador to the country.
Vasyl Myroshnychenko,&nbsp;Ukraine's ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, posted a picture showing a&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;flag hanging from a bush beside the court where his compatriot Kateryna Baindl was playing her first-round match on Monday.
"I strongly condemn the public display of the&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;flag during the game of the Ukrainian&nbsp;tennis&nbsp;player Kateryna Baindl at the&nbsp;Australian&nbsp;Open&nbsp;today," he wrote on Twitter.
"I call on&nbsp;Tennis&nbsp;Australia to immediately enforce its 'neutral flag' policy."
Tennis&nbsp;Australia responded on Tuesday by banning the&nbsp;flags&nbsp;of the two countries.
"Flags&nbsp;from Russia and Belarus are&nbsp;banned&nbsp;onsite at the&nbsp;Australian&nbsp;Open,"&nbsp;Tennis&nbsp;Australia said in a statement.
"Our initial policy was that fans could bring them in but could not use them to cause disruption. Yesterday we had an incident where a flag was placed courtside.
"The ban is effective immediately. We will continue to work with the players and our fans to ensure the best possible environment to enjoy the&nbsp;tennis."
Belarus is being used as a key staging ground for Russia's war in&nbsp;Ukraine, which Moscow terms a "special operation".
Russian&nbsp;and Belarusian players were&nbsp;banned&nbsp;from Wimbledon last year but are able to compete as individual athletes without national affiliation at the&nbsp;Australian&nbsp;Open.
Their&nbsp;flags&nbsp;are not displayed beside their names in TV broadcasts, as is the case for other players, and their nation is not indicated on draw sheets.
Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka said she understood how the display of the&nbsp;flags&nbsp;of the two countries might upset Ukrainian players.
"I really thought that sport is nothing to do with politics but if everyone feels better this way, then it's okay," the fifth seed told reporters&nbsp;after&nbsp;her first-round win on Tuesday.
"If&nbsp;Tennis&nbsp;Australia made this decision to make them feel better, okay. They did it, what can I do? I can do nothing."
Ukraine's number two Marta Kostyuk told Reuters on Monday that she would not shake hands with tour rivals from Russia and Belarus who she feels have not done enough to speak out against the invasion.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

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Russian flags banned at Australian Open tennis after Ukraine complaint