The president of ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyhas gone from being a funny to be considered a renowned leader for his leadership in invasion of russia. As the conflict deepens, other figures have also become a symbol of the ukrainian resistance. This is the case of the deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk, who oversees the humanitarian corridors from the field, lives in a bunker away from her son and has her husband on the front line. Now him hero of Ukraine is the mayor of kyiv, Vitaly Klitschko.
On February 25, a day after the war broke out, Klitschko, 50, said: “I believe in Ukraine, I believe in my country and I believe in my people.” Therefore, and asked if he would go to the fight, the former boxer replied: “I have no other choice, I have to do it.” Likewise, he supported that civilians over 18 years of age take up arms to defend the country, as requested by the Ministry of Defense.
Die rather than succumb to the Russians
As the Russian military escalates the conflict and lays siege to kyiv, Klitschko’s tone has been rising. On several occasions he has already said that he prefers “To die rather than kneel before the russians“. For this reason, he left his offices in kyiv to go to the front and supervise the defense of the capital. Dressed in a bulletproof vest, he is blunt: “I would not hesitate to pick up a weapon.”
In an interview he gave last Monday to RTVEstated that the reason why they are being attacked by Russia is because the objective of the Russian president Vladimir Putin is none other than to unify the ex-soviet republics. “Ukraine does not want to return to USSRbut to be part of Europe“, he assured.
On the other hand, he has taken advantage of his media appearances to call for humanitarian aid. He affirms that kyiv has water “for two weeks”, but what he urges is “food” and “medical material”.
Successes in the ring
In the ring he was not bad at it: with his 2.01 meters of height and his 110 kilos, he managed 15 world titles from Heavyweight in different categories between 1999 and 2012. In addition, he achieved 45 victories in key fights and in his entire career he only added two losses, against Chris Byrd and Lennox Lewis.
In his sports career, however, there is a notable stain: in 1996 he was removed from the national team of the Atlanta Olympic Games from nineteen ninety six after testing positive for a doping control. In 2003, In 2003, he admitted to using steroids.
From founding a party to succeeding in politics
step of the ring to offices in 2005 and for a time he combined his political career with boxing. In 2010 he founded the party Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (Udar), which catapulted him as a deputy to parliament between 2012 and 2014, the year in which he ran for mayor of kyiv and won the municipal elections with 57.46% of the votes.
boxer family
his younger brother, Vladimir Klichkois also a former boxer and went further than Vitali: he is former world championor heavyweight boxing. Both achieved a milestone that no one has repeated: they became the only world heavyweight champion brothers simultaneously in different tournaments and organizations.
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Vladimir has also been in favor of taking up arms if necessary to fight for Ukraine.
In this sense, the former boxer and now candidate for the presidency of Philippines, manny pacquiao, sent a message of support to the Klitschkos. “Stay safe, brothers,” he prayed.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.