Ukrainian sport continues to defend itself from the invasion perpetrated by Russia in its territory, either with protest actions in different sports scenarios… or by going to the front line of battle to face the Russian invader in combat. The last case of a famous Ukrainian athlete who has enlisted in the ranks of the army of his country has been that of the tennis player Alexander Dolgopolov, thus joining his compatriots Sergiy Stakhovsky and the legendary Andréi Medvedev to help defend kyiv in the event of a possible invasion of the Ukrainian capital by Russian troops.
Dolgopolov, who has been very active on social media denouncing the atrocities carried out by the Russian army in Ukraine, published this Wednesday a photo of his arrival at the kyiv train station and a series of texts to justify how the war caught him.
In fact, Dolgopolov himself acknowledged that he fled the country on the eve of the war, fearing what might happen. “Hey guys, I don’t need to answer a lot of questions, so I hope to answer them all at once. It’sThis war caught me in Turkey! I got there a day before all this started and my sister and my mother came with me. Why? Because after a lot of information from the best intelligence agencies in the world and the great disrepute at home, I understood that there could be a chance that a great war would start with attacks on kyiv and the whole country, so I wondered what would happen in the first few days and weeks.
For this reason Dolgopolov wanted to help his country by disseminating information about the Russian attacks to make the world aware of who was to blame for the war. “I understood that there would be mass panic, including my own, and the best thing I could do was let the world know the truth in the first days of this hell and send money to our military and not just spend time saving my family. In a few days, my dear Ukrainians and I destroyed the world information, and no free country had any doubts about the truth and who was the aggressor.”
However, there in Turkey Dolgopolov began training in case he had to fight in the Ukraine thanks to the help of a Turkish soldier. “In this time I have started to practice shooting and I was fortunate that a former professional soldier taught me for 5-7 days. They were very happy to help once they heard my goals, so a big thank you to our friends from Turkey. I’m not going to be Rambo in a week, but I’m already comfortable with weapons and I can shoot three out of five headshots, from 25 meters.”
With the training carried out, Dolgopolov undertook the return to Ukraine as he relates in this way. “At the same time that I was training, I was preparing my return, so once I found some guys from the United States planning to go to Ukraine and we were ready, we started our trip. We took several bulletproof vests for us and our army, we traveled to Zagreb, we took everything we needed besides thermal vision goggles and other things. and we drove across Europe to enter the Ukraine from Poland and finally to kyiv.
Finally, the tennis player himself made a final statement to call on the citizens of Ukraine and kyiv to defend the city against a possible Russian invasiona.”This is my house and we will defend it with all the people who have stayed here. Thank you very much and I respect all the famous people who support us. Much respect and I am also proud of how united this country is under pressure from a crazy dictator. The truth is with us and this is our land! I will stay in kyiv until victory and after. Glory to Ukraine!”
Dolgopolov was also belligerent in an interview with the French newspaper L’Équipe and assured that he would have no qualms about killing a Russian invader if necessary. “I’m not worried about having to kill someone after what they’re doing here. CI know entire families who have died. Children, civilians! They are killing our children and our women. So yeah, I’m ready to shoot a Russian invader. In normal life I wouldn’t, but this is war and if you don’t shoot him, he’s going to kill you. If this situation occurs, it will not be a problem.”
At 33 years old, Dolgopolov, who became number 13 in the world in 2013, who has three ATP titles in his record in Umag, Washington and Buenos Aires, and who won Rafa Nadal twice in Indian Wells in 2014 and at Queen’s in 2015, faces another important game in the defense of his country. “I used to use rackets and strings, and now I use this,” the tennis player published on his social networks along with a photo of a vest, a helmet and a rifle with emojis of a worried face, prayers and a Ukrainian flag hoping not to have to use these new tools.