Arsenal footballer Alexander Zinchenko has said he would leave the UK to fight in Ukraine if called up.
His comments came after President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a new bill lowering the age of enlistment from 27 to 25 to bolster the country’s armed forces against invading Russian forces.
In a new interview, Zinchenko said he would answer any call to fight on the front lines. Ukraine.
“I think that’s a clear answer. I’m going to go,” he said.
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The player said some of his former school friends had gone to war, adding: “It’s hard to understand that just recently we were at the same school, we were playing in the playground or on the football pitch, and now they have to defend us s country.”
“And, honestly, [it’s] It’s hard to accept this, but it is what it is. We can’t give up,” he told BBC Newsnight.
this super league Star said he has donated around £1 million to help the people of his homeland since the full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022.
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Zinchenko, who was born in northern Ukraine, has become a spokesman for Ukraine’s plight and says Ukraine has become a “shield” for the rest of Europe.
The 27-year-old spent time in Russia, where he fled with his parents after conflict broke out in Ukraine’s Donbass region in 2014, where he began his professional football career.
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However, in the interview, Zinchenko also stated that he is no longer in contact with any former teammates or friends with whom he played football in Russia.
The Arsenal defender, who started his career with Ufa in the Russian League in 2016, said a handful of people have texted him but he has not spoken to any of them since the invasion began.
Zinchenko is not the only Ukrainian sports figure to speak out about the Russian invasion. Retired tennis player Sergei Stakhovsky arrives in Kyiv A few days after the invasion began, two battles had already been fought against Russian troops.
and Martha KostyukAnother tennis player has been outspoken about the war and said she fears her sport is forgetting it.
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