The Pain of War: Fifteen Stories of Ukrainian Athletes Killed by Russia in Bombing or Battle

Since the International Olympic Committee has warned that it intends to readmit Russians and Belarusians as “neutral” before the Games Paris 2024, a key sports-political conflict arose. so much that Dmytro Kulebathe foreign minister of Ukraine, a country invaded and bombed by Russian troops, was directed: “The IOC downplays war crimes. Ukrainian athletes continue to die at the hands of Russia.” Shocking fact: there are already 220 Ukrainian athletes and coaches killed in combat or in bombing during the war.

The last of that long list is Volodymyr Androschuk, a 22-year-old promise of the decathlon who was Under 20 national champion in 2019, when he set the national record in the pole vault of 4.30 metres. He represented Ukraine in several international competitions and was killed in a fight near Bakhmut, a city in the Donetsk region of his country’s southeast.

“Rest in peace, Volodymyr. We are losing the best people,” Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the interior minister, wrote on his Twitter account.

Olga SaladukhaOlympic bronze medalist in the triple jump in London 2012, world champion in Daegu 2011 and a member of the Ukrainian parliament, said more than 10 athletes serving in the army recently died near Bakhmut, bringing the death toll to 220.

Also, he said he couldn’t understand Thomas BachIOC President, who has visited Ukraine and seen the extent of destruction by Russia, which it left around 340 sports facilities in ruins.

“No prominent Russian athlete has openly condemned the Russian invasion and the actions of its political leaders. They refrain from voicing their opinions or advocating the invasion“, condemned Zhan BeleniukOlympic gold medalist at Tokyo 2020 in Greco-Roman wrestling and a member of the Ukrainian parliament.

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The first deaths of athletes – the vast majority, amateurs or unknown internationally – were confirmed just a week after the war broke out on February 24 last year. The football players Vitalii Sapylo AND Dmytro Martynenko and the biathlete Yevhen Malyshev they were the first victims of the sport.

Sapylo was 21 years old and part of the youth team Karpaty Lviv, from the city of Lviv, in the Carpathians. He had studied at the National Academy of Land Forces in Lviv and after the invasion was a tank commander in the defense of Kiev. He died during an air raid on the capital.

Martynenko, 25, was a forward for FC Hostomel, a Ukrainian amateur football club. In the last championship played before the invasion, he was awarded as best player and top scorer. A few days after the start of the conflict, he died when a bomb destroyed his house in the Kiev region.

Malyshev was also a young talent with a bright future. He was part of the junior biathlon team, one of the most popular sports in the country, for the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympics. After that event, he decided to put his sports career on hold and signed a contract with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. On March 1, nine days after his 20th birthday, he died defending Kharkiv, his hometown.

Dmytro Sharpartenth in the pairs figure skating competition in Lillehammer Youth Olympic Games 2016, died in combat at Bakhmut. He was national vice-champion in 2016 and double national medal in the junior category. I was 25 years old.

Yevhen Obedinsky, who was the captain of the Ukrainian men’s water polo team, died at the age of 39 during the Russian siege of Maripol. He had survived a battle with a brain tumor. Kira, her 12-year-old daughter, was wounded, captured by Russian troops and taken to Donetsk, though she was soon reunited with her grandfather, Oleksandr Obedinsky, the sport’s former national team coach.

Shooter Ivan Bidnyak He was the European runner-up in the 25m gun squad, in Osijek, Croatia, in 2013. When the war started, he enlisted as a volunteer and died at the age of 36 in combat in the city of Kherson.

Alexander Zakolodny AND Grigory Grigoriev, two extraordinary 35-year-old mountaineers, lost their lives fighting near Soledar, a city taken by Russian troops in mid-January. Grigoryev worked at the Kharkov city council and also excelled in cycling and triathlon. Zakolodny was vice president of the Ukrainian mountaineering federation. he had the title of Snow leopard for having climbed the five-seven-thousanders of the Pamir and Tian Shan, as well as having participated in various eight-thousander expeditions, such as that of Makalu (2010).

Oleksii Dzhunkovskyi, a well-known trainer and former boxer, died in Irpin, a suburb of Kiev. According to Ukrainian media reports, Russian soldiers shot him while he was in the gymnasium where he worked. Winner of four medals at the Military World Championships, since his retirement he has dedicated himself to training children, as well as collaborating with many renowned boxers, such as the FMB middleweight world champion, Vitalii Kopylenko.

Maksim Khahal was the first Ukrainian world champion in kickboxing, a title he obtained in 2014 and a benchmark in that discipline in his country. He also won a bronze medal at the World Championships. He was fond of sports and also played rugby. He died at the age of 30 in the battle for Mariupol. He was part of the Azov Battalion, linked to far-right movements in Ukraine and considered one of the main resistances to the Russian invasion.

Oleksandr Pytel He was a Greco-Roman wrestler, who represented Ukraine in several hand-to-hand military competitions. He was 26 years old and died in combat in the Luhansk region.

Vadym Sotnykov He also excelled in hand-to-hand combat, in which he won gold at the European Championships and was a multiple-time Ukrainian champion. He joined the army as a volunteer and lost his life defending his country.

Two of the deaths that hit Ukrainian sport hardest were those of Alina Perehudova AND Katerina Diachenko, died during the occupation of Maripol. The first she was a young weightlifter with Olympic projection: she was a national champion Under 17 under 40 pounds and she was 14 years old. The second was just 11 years old and had won several medals in national competitions. “She was supposed to conquer the world, but she died buried in rubble,” lamented her coach, Anastasia Meshchanenkov.

“There can be no neutrality in sport while my country’s athletes die on the battlefield”the Ukrainian president had denounced in recent days Volodymyr Zelenskyin response to the IOC proposal.

And buoyed by the stories of these and many other athletes who have died since the start of the war, he vowed to “do everything possible for the world to protect sport from political influence and every other type of terrorist state.”

SA