From the Klitschkos to former Arsenal star Oleg Luzhny: The Ukrainian sports stars defending country

Vitali Klitschko, 50, the former WBC and WBO champion and the present mayor of Kyiv, said he had no choice but to join the fight against Russia. His brother, Wladimir, 45, who held the WBA, WBO and IBF titles, enlisted in Ukraine’s reserve army at the start of last month, before the war began.

They have been joined by two more boxers: Oleksandr Usyk, the reigning WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight champion, and Vasiliy Lomachenko, who won lightweight gold at London 2012, have this week been photographed in military clothing. Lomachenko, 34, was in Greece when the invasion began but returned to his home just outside Odessa and has joined the Belgorod-Dnestrovsky Territorial Defence, while Usyk, 35, returned from London to join up in Kyiv.

Sportsmen from football and tennis have also enlisted. Oleg Luzhny, who played for Arsenal between 1999 and 2003, has put his plans to become a coach in the UK on hold. The 53-year-old told Sky News: “Before anything I will stand firmly and fight for my people, for my country and for democracy.”

Two Ukrainian footballers have been killed since Russia began its invasion.

An official at the Football Federation of Ukraine (FFU) confirmed to The Times that 21-year-old Vitaly Sapylo, who played for the youth team at Ukrainian Premier League side Karpaty Lviv, died defending Kyiv on Friday night after joining the Ukrainian army as a tank commander.

Dmytro Martynenko, an amateur player at FC Hostomel in Kyiv’s regional league, was killed when a shell struck his mother’s house near the Hostomel cargo airport. The area had been the site of fierce fighting on Thursday and Friday as Russian forces attempted to capture the strategically important Antonov Airport.

“Russian aggression takes the lives of peaceful Ukrainians every day,” the FFU official said. “They wanted to live and should not have died.”

The Ukrainian Premier League was in the final week of its winter break when the Russian invasion began, and all professional football in the country has since been indefinitely suspended.

League-leaders Shakhtar Donetsk confirmed on Monday that its Brazilian contingent have been evacuated to safety in neighbouring Romania, though a number of current and former Ukrainian players, including the Sheriff Tiraspol coach Yuriy Vernydub, have taken up arms.

Five months ago Vernydub, 56, was leading Tiraspol to victory against Real Madrid in the Champions League. Now he has enlisted in Kyiv.

Sergiy Stakhovsky, the former world No 31 in men’s tennis who retired after the Australian Open in January, has signed up too. “I pretty much hope that I won’t have to use the gun,” the 36-year-old told BBC Radio 4’s Today program. His wife and children remain in the family home. “I’m still not sure how I’ve done it,” he added. “I know that it’s extremely hard on my wife. My kids don’t know that I’m here. They don’t understand war. They’re too little to understand what’s going on.”

Zhan Beleniuk, who won gold in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Tokyo Olympics while serving as the first black member of Ukraine’s parliament, posted a picture of himself with a gun and bullets on Instagram 12 days ago, with the caption: “If you want peace — prepare for war! Keep the powder dry … and the main thing is a hot heart, and a cold mind!” On Monday, he posted the words: “No more Russia in international sport” with the caption: “F*** you scumbags. Let them compete among themselves! Anyone who supports the Kremlin policy has no place in the civilised world!”

Wladimir Klitschko had set the tone with a lengthy message on LinkedIn last week. “Putin wants to call into question the geopolitical balance across the whole of Europe, he dreams of being the defender of the Slavic peoples wherever they live, and he wants to restore a fallen empire whose demise he has never accepted,” he wrote. “He looks at our continent through distorted glasses, the glasses of a fantasised glorious past. Yet this megalomania has very real implications. The European way of life is under threat, the freedom of peoples to make their own decisions is under threat, and so is democracy.

“The Ukrainian people are strong. And it will remain true to itself in this terrible ordeal.

“The Ukrainian people have chosen democracy. But: democracy is a fragile regime. Democracy cannot defend itself; it needs the will of the citizens, the commitment of everyone. Basically, there is no democracy without democrats.

“Here, we will defend ourselves with all our might and fight for freedom and democracy. You can also act. Let not fear seize us; let’s not remain frozen. Putin shoots at Ukrainian cities, but he aims at our hearts and, more importantly, at our minds. He wants to create doubt and confusion and thus inaction.

“Say that the march of imperialism must be stopped now. After all, whose turn will it be after Ukraine?

“This war against my country is not only the result of one man’s madness, but also the result of years of weakness in Western democracies. This madness must be stopped now by stepping up deterrents. Our governments need to say things loud and clear. If Putin goes ahead with his plan for a change of regime in Kyiv, then democracies around the world must now start thinking about a change of regime in Moscow. Before it is too late.”

Yaroslav Amosov, the welterweight world champion in Bellator MMA, said in a video on Instagram that he had taken his family to a “safe zone” but has since returned to fight.

Vasyl Kravets, who plays for Sporting Gijón in Spain’s second division, said in an interview with Marca last week that he wished to help but was not sure how. “We are a country that wants to live in peace,” the 24-year-old left back said. “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.

“But I can’t help because I don’t know how to shoot, how to move, how to reload a gun … but the truth is that I want to help. If I could go, I would — to defend my country. It is obligatory for the heart of Ukrainians.

“Almost all our airports are blocked. If my country needs everyone to defend our country, I’m leaving. I’ll talk to Sporting and I’ll leave.”

– The Times