Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko says he's ready to give his life to save Ukraine
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Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, Ukraine, said he’s willing to sacrifice his life for the war-torn country as he revealed the emotional toll Russia’s onslaught has left on him, warning the war “can touch anyone in the world.”
Klitschko, who was first elected as mayor of the Ukrainian capital in 2014 after a long and successful career in boxing, expressed optimism about the fight thus far, telling Yahoo France in a Friday interview, “I look in positive, I think in positive, in this critical station always I am still an optimist.”
But he said he was willing to sacrifice his own life for the fight, noting the death of his father, a Soviet Union Air Force officer who died from cancer after exposure to radiation due to his time spent working in the fallout of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
“He taught me always it was a big privilege to die by defending your country,” Klitschko said. “If my home country needs my life, I’m ready to give my life for my country, my children, for the future of my family.”
“Nobody wants to die, everybody wants to live, but the Russians want to rebuild Russian empire and we don’t want to live in Russian empire,” added Klitschko. “The Russians try to put us on our knees, but we’re fighting right now for freedom and for the future of our children and our country.”
The assault, which is entering its fourth week, led him to tears on Friday morning, when he spoke to a woman who had lost her apartment to a Russian strike.
“I’m an old man, a tough man, but it’s difficult to listen to that, to take the human emotions,” the 6-foot-7 former heavyweight champion said. “This war kills plans, kills lives, kills the future of many, many people and to be honest I cry together with this woman.”
Klitschko said that 220 residents of his city had already died in the war, including six children. He added that about half of the city’s 3.5 million residents, mainly women and children, had evacuated as Russian troops continued their march on it, but noted that many former residents had returned to help defend their hometown.
The United Nations estimates that there have been nearly 2,000 civilian casualties, including 726 deaths, since the invasion started on Feb. 24, but that an exact number was difficult to pinpoint. More than 3 million refugees have fled the violence.
The mayor of Kyiv stressed that continued international unity was necessary to defeat Russia or the war would touch everyone.
“Please, stay with Ukraine,” Klitschko said. “Unity is our key to stopping the war. All together we can stop the war because if someone has the idea this war is far away, it doesn’t touch them, it’s the wrong vision. This war can touch anyone on the European continent, it can touch anyone in the world. Everyone has to unite our power, our energy, our vision to stop the war. Unity is the key for freedom. Unity is the key for peace.”
The mayor declined to issue a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him “sick” and saying he wanted to make the Ukrainian people slaves and destroy European democratic principles. Klitschko said he had no hatred for Russia, noting that his mother was Russian and he spoke the language, but that his people would fight.
“Go away from Ukraine, go back home, you have nothing to find in our country,” Klitschko told the Russian people in the interview. “It’s our home, it’s our hometown, it’s our home country, and we will fight. You send your sons or husbands, your men to Ukraine, and huge chance you’ll never see your sons, husbands or men again because they also in the war will die. Stop the war. Go away from Ukraine.
“We are peaceful nation, we don’t have another choice except to fighting right now,” he continued. “I don’t see another choice. To bring hands up and be a part of Russia? No, no, no. We don’t have another choice. If Russia doesn’t go back to home, we just have point. We have to fight and defend.”
Klitschko thanked President Biden and European allies for their support in the form of food, water, medical supplies and modern weapons, as well as humanitarian help, political pressure, economic pressure and sanctions. He asked for other nations to sever all commercial relations, saying that every dollar and every euro was being used by Russia for the war effort.
Klitschko has been a prominent figure in the Ukrainian defense, and earlier this week was featured in a viral video clip in which he was asked by 7 News Australia about Putin’s claims that the Russians were only trying to hit military targets.
“Bullshit! Sorry,” replied Klitschko, pointing to one of the bombed buildings. “Where is the military target? This building is a military target?”
Earlier this week, Biden called Putin a war criminal, an accusation that was echoed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday.
“After all the destruction of the past three weeks, I find it difficult to conclude that the Russians are doing otherwise,” Blinken said during a press conference at the State Department, adding, “Intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime.”
