Former Olympic cross-country skiing champion Välbe ‘proud her brother went to war in Ukraine’
Yelena Välbe, a Russian former cross-country skiing champion and current head of the Russian Ski Federation, has revealed her father is Ukrainian and her brother went to fight in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
Välbe, a three-time Olympic champion and many-times world champion, revealed details about her estranged father in an interview with tabloid newspaper StarHit published on Nov. 8.
“Dad lives in Ukraine,” she said.
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“Unfortunately, I don’t communicate with him. I don’t even know if he’s alive now or not. He was born in Ukraine and worked as a taxi driver in Magadan (in the Russian Far East). My mother and he are divorced. When I was about 20 years old, I wanted to communicate with him, but our relationship was not sincere. I never called him dad.”
The famous athlete fully supports Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's policies and Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. She also proudly shared that her younger brother volunteered for the war.
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“He is young, not even 40 yet,” said Välbe, who is 55.
“Before that, he had already been in hot spots. He and his fellow soldiers decided to join the Special Military Operation.”
The “Special Military Operation” is the propaganda term the Kremlin uses to describe its invasion and war of aggression against Ukraine. Russians who use the word “war” to refer to Russia’s war can be prosecuted and jailed.
Välbe openly supported Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, stating falsely that “we are not at war with Ukraine, and no one attacked it.”
Välbe was elected to international skiing organization the FIS Council in 2021, but was removed from it after expressing her support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
