“I was on a mission for my country. » Blue skirt and yellow t-shirt, the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina beat, on the night of Tuesday 1er to Wednesday March 2, the Russian Anastasia Potapova at the tennis tournament in Monterrey, Mexico. “All the bounties I earn here will go to the military, so thanks for the support”she said, after her victory (6-1, 6-2) against the young Russian of 20 years, with whom she exchanged the greetings of rigor at the end of the match.
The 27-year-old player, 15and world, had considered, the day before, to boycott this match, warning that it would refuse to play against Russians or Belarusians, unless they sported neutral colors. On Tuesday, the ATP, the body that governs the men’s circuit, and the WTA, its female counterpart, indicated in a press release that the Russians and Belarusians could continue to participate in tournaments, but “not under the flag” of their country ” until further notice “.
It’s a small pebble in the shoe of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, on February 24, the positions of athletes have multiplied on sports grounds or social networks to protest against the war. Including among top Russian athletes. Some express themselves quite freely, like the current best tennis player in the country, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (14and world), for whom “Personal or political ambitions do not justify such violence”, as she wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
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“These reactions seem unprecedented. If, before, there could be isolated positions against the government in Russia, they were quickly denounced, marginalized, even sanctioned. Today, given their number, a balance of power could be established.analyzes Carole Gomez, director of research in the geopolitics of sport at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations.
Involvement of Ukrainians in the armed conflict
Pavlyuchenkova’s message echoes those of her compatriots Daniil Medvedev, the circuit’s new world number one since February 28, and Andrey Rublev (6and worldwide). “As a tennis player, I want to promote peace around the world,” Medvedev said on Instagram on Sunday. Rublev himself had summed up his position on February 25 with a “No war please” written on a camera during the Dubai tournament.
The day before, footballer Fedor Smolov, star striker of the national team and Dynamo Moscow, had written on Instagram: “No to war!!! »featuring a broken heart emoji and the Ukrainian flag.
Another football glory, former scorer and coach of the Ukraine team, Andrei Shevchenko insisted on leaving a video message broadcast on a giant screen before the kick-off of the semi-final first leg of the Italian Cup between the AC Milan at Inter Milan, Tuesday: “Dear Italian friends, from San Siro I ask you to make your support for peace in Ukraine heard. The Ukrainian people want peace, because peace has no borders (…). Let’s stop this war together.” declared the 2004 Golden Ball there, who had participated in a demonstration for peace in London on Sunday.
His compatriot Sergiy Stakhovsky, former 31and world player at the ATP and retired since January, has decided to go much further. He left for Kiev to join the military reserve to defend his country against the Russian invasion, leaving behind his wife and children. “I’m not saying I made the right decision. I just hope I can see my wife again and ask her forgiveness… (…) Everyone tried to talk me out of it. The only ones who haven’t really done it are my parents. Probably because they know how they educated me,” he says in an interview at The Team Tuesday.
Biathlete Dmytro Pidruchnyi, world pursuit champion in 2019, has posted Tuesday on his social networks a photo of him in combat gear in Ternopil, western Ukraine, where he says he joined the National Guard. In a statement released on Wednesday, the International Biathlon Federation said a former young Ukrainian biathlete, Yevhen Malyshev, 19, died on Tuesday in combat while performing his military service.
In boxing, two former world heavyweight champions joined the Ukrainian forces. Mayor of Kiev since 2014, Vitali Klitschko followed his brother Wladimir, who had enlisted before the invasion. The Klitschko brothers use their notoriety to call for mobilization: “We must remain united in the face of Russian aggression. (…) United we are strong. Support Ukraine”, they declare in a recent video post.
The discordant voice of Russian boxer Alexander Povetkin
The Ukrainian army also received this weekend another reinforcement of weight: Oleksandr Usyk, unified world heavyweight champion. The 35-year-old boxer joined the territorial defense of Kyiv. Followed by 1.7 million people on Instagram, he documents his experience on the spot. “I would like to talk to people from Russia. We Orthodox consider ourselves brothers. Don’t let your children go to our country, don’t fight with us. (…) So I address this to President Vladimir Putin: you can end this war. Please sit down and negotiate together without demands”Usyk said in a video on Instagram posted on Sunday. A message relayed by Yaroslav Amosov, champion of MMA (mixed martial arts), who indicated that he would follow his example.
In this concert in unison, the main discordant voice came from the Russian Alexander Povetkin. The 42-year-old former boxer, Olympic super-heavyweight champion in Athens in 2004, retired for a few months, showed his support for Vladimir Putin, taking up the Kremlin’s rhetoric on his own. “We fought for the truth all those years when the Slavs were exterminated in the Donbass. It is for this reason that I have decided to defend the people, to fight the Nazism which parasitizes us.Povetkin explained in an Instagram post on Monday.
Russian superstar of the NHL – the North American Ice Hockey League – and captain of the Washington Capitals, Russian hockey player Alexander Ovechkin is also a long-time supporter of Vladimir Putin. His profile picture on Instagram shows him all smiles, making the peace sign with the Russian president. Questioned a few hours after the start of the war, on February 24, by American journalists, he timidly called for an end to the war, while refusing to condemn the leader of the Kremin. “He’s my president. But I don’t do politics. I am an athlete. (…) I hope this will all be over soon”he said, visibly uncomfortable.
However, Ovechkin’s position did not penalize him sportingly since the NHL, unlike most international sports bodies, does not prohibit Russian hockey players from playing.