Russia-Ukraine conflict: Leaving boxing gloves and racquets behind, Ukrainian athletes double up as soldiers

From boxing champions to football stars to former professional tennis players, all have joined the fight against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some of them have returned home to take up arms, out of compulsion and feel duty-bound to fight for their motherland.

Klitschko brothers

Boxing’s multiple World Heavyweight title holder Vitali Klitschko, now Mayor of Kyiv, told Good Morning Britain on 25 March: “I don’t have another choice, I have to do that. I’ll be fighting.”

“I go to a shooting range. I can fire almost any weapon,” said the 50-year-old who won super heavyweight gold at the World Military Games in 1995.

Vitali’s, 50, brother Wladimir, also a former world heavyweight champion, has also volunteered to fight. “It’s a very challenging time in the lives of Ukrainians. I was never thinking I am going to face the war,” he told Sky Sports.

“You see and hear the explosions, the rockets, the destroyed vehicles, buildings - it is absolutely terrifying what the war can do.

“I am proud of the Ukrainian nation. Everyone stands for each other. I have never been as proud to be Ukrainian as now.”

Meet Kyiv Vitali Klitschko. He is the mayor of Kyiv and former Heavyweight Champion of the World.
His Facebook Live just now:

“My message to the world:
ACT NOW - STOP THIS WAR!”#StopRussia #StopTheWar#Klitschko #klitschkoBrothers #StayWithUkraine #Ukraine #StayTogether pic.twitter.com/689lJoeqwc

— Whitney Sich (@WhitSich) February 26, 2022

Former Boxing Champions, The Klitschko Brothers, are staying in Ukraine to fight. Vitali Klitschko is the mayor of Kiev. #UkraineInvasion #UkraineUnderAttack #UkraineWar #UkraineRussie pic.twitter.com/emcvNoqCf6

— Flash News (@flash_news11) February 26, 2022

Oleksandr Usyk

Oleksandr Usyk, former undisputed cruiserweight world champion and the current WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight world champion, was due to face Anthony Joshua in a rematch. But that has been thrown in the air after Usyk enlisted himself to serve in Kyiv’s Territorial Defense.

“My country and my pride are more important to me than a championship belt,” he told CNN from a basement in Kyiv.

Asked if he was prepared to take a life, Usyk said: “If somebody is going to take my life away or my people who are close to me, I will have no choice.”

“I don’t want to kill anybody, I don’t want to shoot anybody, but if it’s going to be my life on the line, I will do it.”

He also had a message for Russians and president Vladimir Putin. “Good morning to everybody. My name is Oleksandr Usyk. I’d like to speak to the people of Russia,” he said. “If we consider ourselves as brothers, orthodox ones. Do not let your children to set out to our country, do not fight with us. Also I’m addressing this to the President Vladimir Putin. You can stop this war. Please just sit down and negotiate it with us without claims.

“Our kids, wives, grannies are hiding in the basements. We are here in our own country, we cannot do it other way - we are defending. Stop it! Stop this war.”

Vasiliy Lomachenko

🇺🇦The Belgorod-Dnestrovsky Territorial Defense Battalion has been formed and armed. In the territorial defense, boxer @VasylLomachenko informed the mayor Vitaly Grazhdan. pic.twitter.com/EMPExOL1q4

— UkraineBoxingPRO (@UkraineAtamans) February 27, 2022

Two-time world champion and Olympic gold medalist boxer Vasiliy Lomachenko was pictured armed and in military overalls after joining the Belgorod-Dnestrovsky Territorial Defense near the city of Odessa.

Lomachenko, who was hoping to face George Kambosos for the undisputed lightweight championship, travelled back to Ukraine to be with his family, flying into Bucharest before travelling through Romania after his initial flight into the country from Greece had been delayed as air traffic was grounded.

Sergiy Stakhovsky

Retired tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky, 36, hopes he doesn’t have to open fire while serving with Kyiv’s volunteer defenders.

“Of course, I would fight, it’s the only reason I’m trying to get back,” he told Sky News after escorting his wife and child to safety in Hungary.

“I signed up for the reserves last week. I don’t have military experience but I do have experience with a gun privately.

“My dad and brother are surgeons, they are stressed out, but I speak to them frequently — they sleep in the basement.”

“I know how to use the gun. If I’ll have to, I’ll have to. I pretty much hope that I won’t have to use the gun,” the former world number 31, who famously beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2013, told the BBC.

Yuriy Vernydub

Last September, Yuriy Vernydub led his FC Sheriff to a famous victory over Real Madrid in the Champions League.

He has now returned to Ukraine and joined the army to help defend his country. pic.twitter.com/UJdEMaBHtg

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) March 1, 2022

Sheriff Tiraspol’s Ukrainian manager Yuriy Vernydub, who beat Spanish giants Real Madrid just five months back, has joined the territorial army. Born in Ukraine, Vernydub who works in Moldova bid his team goodbye to join the vanguard.

Other footballers willing to take up arms include Spanish club Sporting Gijon’s Vasyl Kravets. “They are killing people, civilians, in hospitals. It’s all Putin’s fault, I don’t want to say it’s Russia’s fault, but Putin’s,” Kravets told Marca. “We are a country that wants to live in peace. We don’t want to attack anyone, we want to live well and calm. I tell the truth: I want to go to war and help my people,” said the young player who’s never loaded a gun. “It is obligatory for the heart of Ukrainians.”

Winnipeg football goalkeeper, Svyatik Artemenko, 22, waited hours in line to enlist with Ukraine’s armed forces. “Deep down inside there’s always the fear of losing my life, and obviously it’s a war, so it’s normal to feel a bit of fear,” Artemenko told the media. “But the feeling of pride and taking responsibility, it surpasses the sense of fear.”

Artemenko, who isn’t a Ukrainian citizen anymore but has family in the country, isn’t obligated to join the military. However, he said it felt like something he had to do.

Biathletes serve, one killed

Two biathlon Olympians, Dmytro Pidruchny – a Beijing Games medallist, and Dmytro Mazurchuk, a Nordic combination skier, also enlisted. Pidruchny wrote in a post: “Do not say that sport is not related to politics. It’s related. Soldiers and civilians in my motherland die while reading this. I beg you, do not stay away.”

Meanwhile, Yevhen Malyshev, 19, a member of the national youth team from 2018 to 2020, died while serving in Ternopil. International Biathlon Union confirmed the development.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News,  Cricket News, Bollywood News,  India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.