- By Kirsty Wark & Hollie Cole
- BBC Newsnight
Arsenal footballer Oleksandr Zinchenko says he would leave the UK to play in Ukraine if called up.
The 27-year-old told BBC Newsnight that he has donated around £1million to help people in his home country since a full-scale invasion by Russia in 2022.
He said Ukraine has become a “shield” for Europe and called for more support.
This will allow the country to call up more people to replenish its reserves and comes after President Volodymyr Zelensky said in December that the country would need 500,000 extra troops to mobilize.
BBC Newsnight asked the footballer if he would answer a game call-up if he saw more value in it than staying to play Premier League football.
“I think that’s a clear answer, I would go [to fight]”, he said.
He added that he had former school friends who were fighting on the front lines.
“It’s hard to understand that not long ago we were in the same school, playing on the playground or on the football field, and now they have to defend our country,” he said.
“And, frankly, [it’s] so hard to accept but it is what it is. We can’t give up.”
Mr Zinchenko said the situation in the country was “super tough” but he and his family were “proud of our president”.
“I know maybe some people think it’s a lot easier… for me to be here [in London] rather than being there [in Ukraine]. I really hope this war will end soon,” he said.
“I will teach my children what they have done”
The Arsenal defender started his football career with Russian club Ufa in 2016 and said he no longer speaks to friends or former team-mates who are in Russia.
“Since the invasion very few [have] he texted me but I stopped any communication from February 2022. They sent me some messages and I can’t blame them because it’s not their fault,” he said.
“I can’t tell them, ‘Guys, protest outside and all that,’ because I know they can [put] In prison.
“But I have a question for the people of Russia – how do you live in a country where you have no freedom of speech at all?”
He said Russians used to call Ukrainians their “brothers” and “sisters,” but the invasion showed “all of us Ukrainians that we can no longer be friends with them.”
“We will never forget what they have done to us, to our people,” he said. “And this is what I will teach my children. And my children will teach their children. This is not acceptable.”
image source, Getty Images
In the early days of the invasion, Mr Zinchenko said he sent money to help refugees in Ukraine and his donations totaled more than £1m.
He added that he knows hundreds of children whose parents have died in the war.
The Arsenal star said: “What is my duty now? How can I help as much as I can in my country, my people, over there and all these things?
“I couldn’t be more proud than I am right now to be Ukrainian.
“I have a dream that this war will end very, very soon, and we can rebuild our Ukraine as we really want [to].”
Additional reporting by Tetiana Kharchenko and Jasmin Dyer.
Watch the full interview at BBC Newsnight on BBC2 at 22:30 GMT and on BBC iPlayer.