Svitolina’s three tough questions to tennis players from Russia and Belarus

Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolinaone of the most active athletes in the protests against the war in Ukraine and against the participation in competitions of athletes from Russia and Belarus who have not condemned the invasion of their country, has published this Wednesday a harsh statement on its social networks to ask the athletes of both countries to be publicly opposed to the armed conflict and against the regimes of their countries.

Svitolina, who decided to take a break from her career and stop competing for a while, began her letter with a chronology of what has happened in her country since the beginning of the invasion on February 24.“Dear tennis community, Ginetta Sagan once said that ‘silence in the face of injustice is complicity with the oppressed’. And that couldn’t be more correct right now. On February 24, 2022, Russia, supported by Belarus, attacked Ukraine. Now there is a war in our country, in our house. All Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes and fight for their lives. For 50 days, the Russian army has bombed our cities and killed civilians, as well as using the territory of Belarus to bomb Ukraine from the West and the North. Millions of people have been left homeless, millions of children now know what explosions, fear and death are. All this is happening in the center of Europe.”

The Ukrainian tennis player also denounced that Russian and Belarusian athletes could exert pressure as public figures to end the conflict. “As athletes we live in the public eye and we have a great responsibility. Some of our messages and opinions on social networks have reached a larger audience than those of regional television. In times of crisis, silence means that you agree with what what’s going on. We have noticed that tennis players from Russia and Belarus have been at this point when talking about the war, but they have never taken a position stating that Russia and Belarus started this war on the territory of Ukraine. The silence of all those who have chosen to remain in that position is unbearable and leads to continued killing in our homeland.”

For that reason, and in the face of their inaction, Svitolina launches this questionnaire proposal to the main organizations of world tennis. “We ask that the WTA, ATP and ITF ensure that tennis players representing Russia and Belarus answer the following questions: Do you support the invasion of Russia and Belarus on the territory of Ukraine and, consequently, the war that has started between these countries? Do you support the activities of Russia and Belarus in Ukraine? Do you support the regimes of Putin and Lukashenko?”

Waiting for that to happen, Svitolina was once again in favor of excluding Russian and Belarusian tennis players from tournaments and affirms that this is the price of her silence. “While it is being implemented, we ask that athletes from Russia and Belarus be excluded and banned from any international competition, as Wimbledon has done. There comes a time when silence is betrayal, and that time is now.”