Neither Ukraine nor Israel will be allowed to play next month’s Davis Cup ties on home soil because of security issues, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) has ruled.

At a meeting held yesterday, the ITF board of directors upheld an appeal from Ukraine’s opponents Belgium that their World Group play-off should not be held in Kiev because of continued unrest in the country.

A statement read: “The Board noted that the original decision by the Davis Cup Committee had not been unanimous; and that, while the recent political unrest had occurred in eastern Ukraine, a disturbance in Kiev’s Independence Square as recently as last Thursday indicated that the security situation there was fluid.”

The decision was  condemned by Ukrainian number two Sergiy Stakhovsky, who wrote on Twitter: “This is insane! @ITF_Tennis forbids #ukraine to play home!! #belgium federation you are far from being decent.”

The ITF board, meanwhile, rejected an appeal from Israel, which had hoped to overturn an earlier decision forbidding their World Group play-off against Argentina from being played in Tel Aviv.