It’s an emotional interview that gets under your skin.
The Ukrainian Manchester City star Oleksandr Zinchenko (25) talks to the “BBC” and football icon Gary Lineker about what was probably the most horrific time of his life. The terrible Putin war in his home country Ukraine.
“I’m just crying. It’s been a week but even if I drive the car from the training ground I could cry out of nowhere.” The defender was woken up by his wife Vlada in the middle of the night last week as the Russian invasion launched.
“It’s all in my head. Imagine the place where you were born, where you grew up and it’s all destroyed.”
The 48-time Ukraine international says friends back home send him countless videos of the Russian attack. “I can show a million pictures and videos of every city in my country that they destroyed. The people there are sending me facts…they are starving. People just try to survive, they sleep underground and in bunkers.”
Photo: WITTERS
” data-zoom-src=”https://bilder.bild.de/fotos/oleksandr-zinchenko-l–und-frankie-kent-r–vor-dem-fa-cup-spiel-am-tuesday- mit-der-ukraine-flag-2de8c2aec0914db89198fd4487d1d0de-79358018/Bild/4.bild.jpg”/> Oleksandr Zinchenko (L) and Frankie Kent (R) before Tuesday’s FA Cup match with the Ukraine flag as a sign of solidarity after Russia’s attack Photo: WITTERS
Zinchenko, who captained his team on Tuesday in the FA Cup, thanks for the worldwide support and adds: “I am so proud to be Ukrainian and I will be for the rest of my life. And when you watch people fighting for their lives… there are no words. I know the people, the mentality of my people from my country, they prefer to die and they will die. But they will not give up.”
He too would fight, but doesn’t want to abandon his family in England: “I’ll be honest, if it weren’t for my daughter, I would be there.”
It is not the first time that Zinchenko has spoken out in public during the Putin war. Shortly after the invasion began, he addressed the Russian President directly: “I hope you die the most painful death, you disgusting creature!”
A short time after the post on Tuesday evening, the post was deleted from the platform, “from Instagram,” as Zinchenko emphasized.
In an emotional post he added a little later: “My country belongs to the Ukrainians and nobody will ever be able to appropriate it.”
The Ukrainian played for Russian club FK Ufa and Shakhtar Donetsk in his youth and captained his national team during the World Cup qualifiers in March 2021.
