War in Ukraine: Arsenal defender will go if called up – 05/04/2024 – Sport

Arsenal defender Oleksandr Zinchenko declared this Friday (5) that he will leave the English Premier League to fight in Ukraine if his country, at war for two years after Russia’s invasion, calls him to join the army.

“I think the answer is clear. I would [para lutar]”, declared the 27-year-old left-back with 60 caps for Ukraine in statements to the BBC’s “Newsnight” program, which asked about a possible incorporation into his country’s army.

The Gunners player added that old colleagues from his school days were struggling.

“It’s hard to imagine that not long ago we were at the same school, we played in the courtyard or on the football field, and now they have to be defending our country. Honestly, it’s something difficult to accept, but that’s the way things are. We can’t abandon,” he said.

Zinchenko, a former Manchester City player, indicated in this BBC broadcast that he had made a donation of one million pounds [1,16 milhão de euros ou US$ 1,23 milhão] to help the inhabitants of their country, plunged into conflict since February 2022.

“I know some people might think it’s a lot easier for me to be here [em Londres] than there [na Ucrânia]”, he admitted. “I sincerely hope that this war ends soon”, he wished.

Ukrainian President Volodomir Zelensky this week enacted a law that reduced the mobilization age for the Ukrainian army from 27 to 25, Parliament said on its website.

Mobilization for the army has been a topic of contention in a country exhausted by more than two years of war with Russia, which caused huge military losses. Zelensky declared in December that the army wanted to mobilize up to half a million people to fight.

The Arsenal player, who began his career with Russian club Ufa, said he no longer has contact with his friends or former teammates who are in Russia.

“Since the hack, very few of them have messaged me and I can’t blame them because it’s not their fault,” he said. “I can’t tell them to speak out or do this or that, I know they would be risking arrest,” she emphasized.

For Zinchenko, this conflict showed “all Ukrainians that you cannot be friends” with the Russians.

“We will never forget what they did to us, what they did to our people. This is what I will teach my children. And my children will teach your children. This is not acceptable”, he said.