Ukrainian tennis star Sergiy Stakhovsky has revealed he is currently preparing to defend Kyiv, after he recently pledged to return to his country to help fight the Russian invasion.
Stakhovsky, who retired just weeks before his country found itself at war with Russia, had previously spoken about his plans to join the Ukrainian reserves from his home in Hungary, and has since travelled from Budapest to Kyiv, where he has now taken up arms to defend to the capital.
'I don’t have the words to describe it. I would never imagine in my life that it would come to this, that I would be in my home city... with a gun in my hands,' he told AP from Kyiv.
In recent Instagram posts, Stakhovsky has shared images of himself in military fatigues patrolling the streets of Kyiv armed with a gun, and in an interview with The Times, he explained that while leaving his family was a heart-wrenching decision, he knew he had to return to the front lines.
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"Having three kids, with my wife worrying daily, it’s hard to justify being here. You don’t know when a missile could fly into any building. It’s roulette," he said. "But she understands why and that I couldn’t do it any other way. Talk to family and you think you should be with them. But if I was with them I would also feel I should be in Ukraine."
The former tennis star, who reached the top 40 of the ATP world rankings and is best known for beating Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2013, condemned Russia's attacks on civilian areas, but also praised the resilience of his compatriots in holding off the advance of Putin's army.
"The atrocities they commit on a daily basis... They use tactics which are to kill – not kill, slaughter – as many people as they can, because we can’t call it otherwise," he said of Russia. "So it’s not a war, it’s a slaughterhouse where they try to spread fear and destruction. But seeing Ukraine, how people are motivated to fight, it’s also inspirational."
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Stakhovsky added that as well as defending his country, he is also fighting for Europe as a whole.
"I am here because I believe that the future of my country and the future of my kids, and the future of Europe as we know it, it is under great danger," he said. "And if there’s anything I can do to change the outcome, I will try to do it."
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Topics: Russia, Ukraine, World News, Sport