Ukraine, which has found itself at the receiving end of the ongoing invasion by their neighbours Russia, has found a new voice of resistance in Oleksandr Usyk, the unified heavyweight boxing champion of the world, who has made an appeal to the Russian President Vladimir Putin to put and end to the war and has also made a call for negotiations.
You can stop this war. Please just sit down and negotiate it with us: Oleksandr Usyk reaches out
Usyk, who defeated Anthony Joshua via unanimous decision at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on 25th September last year to become the new WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight champion, recently responded to accusations of him escaping Ukraine in the wake of the Russian invasion in his country.
“The Cat”, who had flown back from the UK after some work, recently took to Instagram to state that he will not be running away from the crisis and made a call for unity among Ukrainians, in a short clip captioned “NO WAR”.
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On Saturday, Usyk followed up with another video on Instagram, in which the 35-year-old pugilist made an appeal to Russia as well as President Putin to put a stop to the war and to look for negotiations.
“Good morning to everybody. My name is Aleksandr Usyk. I’d like to speak to the people of Russia. If we consider ourselves as brothers, orthodox ones. Do not let your children to set out to our country, do not fight with us,” Usyk captioned the post.
“Also I’m addressing this to the President Vladimir Putin,” the boxer went on, “You can stop this war. Please just sit down and negotiate it with us without claims. Our kids, wives, grannies are hiding in the basements… We are here in our own country, we cannot do it other way – we are defending… Stop it! Stop this war.”
Earlier, former heavyweight boxing champion brothers Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko announced their partake in taking up arms against Russia. Wladimir, the former unified world heavyweight champ, had already enlisted into the military and Vitali, the Mayor of Kiev, also decided to take up arms to defend his nation.
Highlight:
- Unified world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk has made an appeal to Russia and President Vladimir Putin to stop the war
- Earlier Usyk also called for the Ukrainian people to come together and take a stance against the Russian invasion
