"Human life is defended here": Klitschko in Kiev at the front - emotional call for help from his brother

Created: 02/24/2022, 22:00

By: Patrick Mayer

Mayor of Kiev: ex-boxing world champion Vitali Klitschko.

© IMAGO / Rolf Poss

Ex-boxing world champion Vitali Klitschko, who is well-known in Germany, has to fend off Russia's attack on Ukraine as mayor of Kiev.

Munich/Kiev – Pictures have shown him repeatedly in shooting practice with a machine gun in recent weeks.

He used to hit his opponents with a hard left hand in the boxing ring, in these hours ex-champion Vitali Klitschko has to face a military superiority from Russia* with his compatriots in the Ukraine conflict*.

War in Ukraine: Vitali Klitschko, as mayor of Kiev, faces Russian superiority

The 50-year-old, who once won the WBO and WBC world heavyweight championships, among other things, is the mayor of the Ukrainian capital Kiev, at whose gates the troops of the Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin should stand.

That morning Klitschko, who was only at the security conference in Munich over the weekend, begged the world community for support.

In the video: Compact - The news about Russia's attack on Ukraine

"We are at war and fighting for our country, but we need the support of the whole world and immediately really painful sanctions against Russia," he told

: "The situation in Kiev is under control for the time being, but of course people are nervous. A few hours later it was clear that the Russian military had advanced deep into Ukrainian territory both via the north from Belarus and via the east and south via the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on the Donbass.

War in Ukraine: Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko send calls for help to Germany and the West

Also in the direction of Kiev, a metropolis with more than 2.9 million inhabitants, from which people fled in panic to the west.

Or where they sought protection from Russian bombs in air raid shelters and subway stations, as photos on Twitter are said to show.

During the course of the day, his brother Wladimir Klitschko, also a former boxing world champion, addressed his second home Germany and the West in the outbreak of the Ukraine war.

“You have to stop this war.

This war is in Europe, in Ukraine.

This war will also continue, into the wider Europe.

If you don't stop it.

I don't even rule out the whole world," said the younger, 45-year-old Klitschko brother in an interview with RTL / ntv: "That's why I would like to say to our western partners: In these difficult times, do not leave Ukraine to the imperialist ambition of Russia.

Democracy is defended here.

Human life is defended here.

And peace in Europe.”

Ukraine war: No intervention by NATO against Russia - Kiev is on its own

However, the call for help is likely to remain unheard, at least militarily.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made it clear early on that the transatlantic defense alliance would not intervene.

Instead, with the help of the German Bundeswehr, NATO is working to move more troops to its eastern flank between Romania, Poland and the Baltic States.

These include, for example, three more for a total of six German Eurofighter fighter jets.

That's not all: As

from circles of the National Guard in Kiev, the capital could soon fall to the Russian troops.

What will become of Vitali Klitschko is completely unclear at the moment.

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