Berlin – Former professional tennis player Sergei Stakhovsky is very worried about the fate of his home country, Ukraine.
“When you hear Putin say that Ukraine never existed, that it was created by the Soviet Union, by Lenin, that it never had a history, then you understand: if Ukraine loses this war, it will be erased from all history books,” Stakhovsky told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “It will disappear from the earth as a country.”
Stakhovsky was a professional tennis player until January, and now the 36-year-old patrols the capital Kiev as a territorial defence volunteer to ensure order and security. “Now we are in a war with Russia, and I understand in order to control Ukraine, they have to slaughter the majority of Ukrainians,” explained the former athlete, whose family lives in Budapest with his three children.
The mood among volunteers in Kiev is good at the moment, he said, but everyone is also concerned “about the other cities that are being devastated and where people are dying. Everyone is super motivated, but also angry and ready to take revenge on the Russian army for their atrocities, for what they are doing to civilians. They are slaughtering families, killing civilians, raping,” Stakhovsky described.
He categorically rules out a surrender of his home country. “It is nice that some people think that a surrender will stop the killing. But Germany of all countries should know what price France and Poland paid when they surrendered. “
