Ukrainians have nowhere to retreat and will defend their homeland from Russian invaders, Kyiv mayor and former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko said from the capital city on Thursday.
Flanked by his heavyweight boxing star brother Wladimir, Vitali Klitschko spoke via Skype as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its second week. Moscow was shelling several Ukrainian cities as its main assault force remained at a halt north of Kyiv.
“Thousands, already tens of thousands are killed in this war against Ukraine. And this number will unfortunately only grow,” Vitali said from a shelter he is working from in Kyiv.
“We are not going to surrender. We have nowhere to retreat.”
He said about a half of the city’s 3 million people had left and that authorities had also evacuated many orphans to Poland and Germany.
“The situation is tense, people are worried,” he said, adding projectiles were constantly “hitting residential blocks or important infrastructure sites.”
“The city needs peace and peaceful skies … Kyiv residents have been in their basements nonstop for a week now because of air raid alarms going off all the time.”
With empty streets, some food shortages and pharmacies closed, Kyiv was still faring better than Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv, which was heavily shelled by Russia, or the southern port of Mariupol, which was encircled and left without power or water.
Vitali Klitschko said Russia was trying to surround Kyiv as well and called on Russians to challenge president Vladimir Putin.
“You are an instrument at the hands of one man with one ambition — to resurrect the Soviet Union … For ambitions of one man, we are paying a very high price.”
Putin said his “special military operation” was meant to protect Russians persecuted in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic that now wants to join NATO and the European Union.
The boxing brothers, whose mother is ethnically Russian, said Ukraine was always home to Ukrainians, Russians, Jews and other religions and ethnicities.
“It’s senseless. There is no reason to attack Ukraine,” Wladimir Kitschko said, describing footage of damage in the city of Kharkiv as weighing heavily on people’s minds.
“It’s complete madness … What is happening is terror. It’s happening in 2022. It’s something one’s mind doesn’t comprehend.”
The mayor’s younger brother said he spent the last week helping to move food and medicine around the city.
“You don’t know if you’re going to make it through the day tomorrow. Those nights, hearing explosions all night long and shooting in the street, that does make you feel worried.”
He called for the severing of all international business ties with Russia now and the imposition of more sanctions after Europe, the United States and other countries cut links with Russian banks and businesses in retaliation for the invasion.
“We’re really counting hours here,” Wladimir Kitschko said. “We have no time. We need to act now, we need to stop this madness. All the money that Russia is getting is being used to buy lethal weapons that are killing Ukrainians.”
He also lauded the sports community for coming together to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes following the invasion.
Belarus has been a key staging area for Russia.
“I’m proud of the world’s unity and seeing sporting communities standing together — the International Olympic Committee, boxing federations, UEFA, FIFA, Formula One,” Wladimir Klitschko told Sky sports.
“Ban Russian teams from participating. I have nothing against the athletes but they are presenting the regime and in some way the connection with this war,” Klitschko said.
“It’s never enough until the war is going to be stopped but it’s important to show the world is not okay with this war, that the sporting world is not okay with it.
Oleksandr Usyk, the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO champion is also fighting the battle for the future of his nation, having joined the territorial defense battalion in Kyiv.
Former tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky has also enlisted in Ukraine’s reserve army.
“It’s a very challenging time in the lives of Ukrainians, I was never thinking I’m going to face the war,” Wladimir Klitschko said.
“You see and hear the explosions, the rockets, the destroyed vehicles, buildings — it’s absolutely terrifying what the war can do. I’m proud of the Ukrainian nation. Everyone stands for each other. I have never been as proud to be Ukrainian as now.”
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