Former heavyweight champion brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko have taken up arms in a bid to defend Ukraine from a Russian invasion, as some of the country’s leading boxers expressed dismay over the escalating conditions.
The boxing Hall-of-Fame brothers have joined the fight against Russia, with Vitali, the mayor of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, announcing plans to defend their country against the attack.
“It’s already a bloody war,” Vitali said on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. “… I don’t have another choice. I have to do that. I would fight.”
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After dominating the world of heavyweight boxing for years with his brother, Vitali, 50, is also the head of the Kyiv City State Administration, and has been mayor since 2014. He’s been a vocal critic of Russian interference and was a leading part of protests against the country having closer links with their powerful neighbours.
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Wladimir, 45, joined Ukraine’s reserve army earlier this month in preparation for an attack, and took to social media to air his concerns.
“Now, the Russian president [Vladimir Putin] is using war rhetoric … he makes it clear that he wants to destroy the Ukrainian state and the sovereignty of its people,” Wladimir Klitschko wrote on LinkedIn. “Words are followed by missiles and tanks. Destruction and death come upon us. … We will defend ourselves with all our might and fight for freedom and democracy.”
The escalating war has impacted some of the country’s leading fighters.
Former unified lightweight world champion, Vasiliy Lomachenko, who has been touted as a possible opponent for George Kambosos’ first title defence in Melbourne, has fled Ukraine for Greece.
The man who snatched the heavyweight championship from Anthony Joshua last September, champion Oleksandr Usyk, is back in the country after travelling to London earlier in the week.
“Some wrote to me that I ran away; I didn’t, I was at work but I’m back, I’m home,” Usyk said in an Instagram video in comments translated from Russian. “Friends, we have to unite because it’s a hard time right now and I’m really emotional and worry about my country, and our people. Friends, we have to stop this war; all of us together.”
Another fighter who has family in Ukraine is former super-lightweight champion Viktor Postol, who fights in Las Vegas this weekend against Gary Antuanne Russell.
Postol, who held the WBC super lightweight title in 2015 and 2016, said his family it’s difficult to not think about the current situation in his country.
“The situation in Ukraine escalated a lot last couple of days, it’s hard not to think about it, but I try to focus on the fight and not for the news,” Postol said. “My family is there in the middle of everything. But I am going to have my people there and my family is safe.”
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