From the heart of the ongoing war in Ukraine, Vitali Klitschko, the former heavyweight champion and now the mayor of Kyiv, has a message for the world; "It's a challenge not just for our homeland. It's a challenge for the whole democratic world, it's a challenge for the future," he said
Thursday 15 August 2024 14:42, UK
When Vitali Klitschko achieved global prominence as a heavyweight boxing world champion, no one expected him to become a political leader in a time of war.
Klitschko and his brother Wladimir dominated the heavyweight division in a way that no brothers have done before, and surely none will do again.
They were activists too during their boxing careers, supporting the Orange Revolution, the sequence of popular protests that sought democratic reform, to shed Russian influence and tilt towards European integration.
After his decorated boxing career ended, Klitschko entered into politics and was the mayor of capital city Kyiv by the time Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
"Nobody expected war would be in our homeland. Nobody expected the biggest war in Europe after the Second World War," Klitschko told Sky Sports.
"No one expected we'd have millions of refugees, no one expected hundreds of thousands people killed, a lot of cities, villages, totally destroyed because someone had the crazy idea to rebuild the Soviet empire and never respect our wish as Ukrainians to be part of the European family."
The life of a boxer is fairly predictable. In camp it's a matter of conditioning, sparring round after round, practising technique and honing everything through relentless repetition.
Being mayor of a major city during wartime is something else entirely.
"The frontline was never in our hometown but, from drone and missile attacks, they've destroyed more than 800 buildings in our city. Almost 300 people were killed, a lot of children," Klitschko said.
"We're responsible for services, we're responsible to protect the people in our hometown and we're responsible to bring the good mood to people. We're responsible to help our military forces, also a huge responsibility in every direction, it's medical, education, transportation, public transportation, also safety for the people. It's a lot of responsibility."
Day to day life in Kyiv is punctuated by the sound of air raid sirens. Every time, he said: "I hope our anti-missile systems work well and have good protection and we don't have damage and dead people anymore in our hometown.
"Every alarm I [pray] to God, and keep my fingers crossed for our military forces to defend the next attack, the next missile attack. We have three, four, five times during the day missile alarm.
"Kyiv was the target and still is the target of the Russians as the heart of the country, as capital of the country and that's why it has to be unbroken, it has to be strong."
Klitschko, in his current position, with his fame and his past as a heavyweight champion, is a prominent figure who encapsulates the spirit of Ukrainian resistance. That makes him a target. But he won't consider the danger he is in personally.
"I never think about that. Nobody in Ukraine has a safety guarantee. We're living for almost three years under attack and with our team we go a couple of times a month to the frontline to support our citizens because it's no secret more than a hundred thousand citizens of our hometown right now take uniform, weapons in hands and defend our homeland," he said.
"It's very important to be proactive, it's very important to fight for your vision, for your future, for your country, for freedom, for democracy. About dangers - everyone is in danger and regarding me personally I don't think about that.
"There's millions of people homeless, millions of people lose members of their families and millions of people starting their lives from zero point and that's why my mission and my position to defend the people and help the people is my main priority. Not myself."
He intends to get his message across in a new film released by Sky Documentaries on Thursday.
"I want to bring much attention to Ukraine for everything that's happening in our homeland, this war actually destroyed the lives of millions of the people and right now we're living and fighting to survive, to survive in a very difficult situation. We have a lot of challenges. Every day, every single day we have a lot of challenges," he said.
"From the capital of Ukraine depends the whole situation in the whole country. That's why Kevin [Macdonald] asked me to make this movie and I thought about that and made a decision it's very important to bring much more attention from the whole world to the current situation in Ukraine. Because from Ukraine depends the future of Europe.
"Everyone in Europe has to understand, it's a challenge not just for our homeland. It's a challenge for the whole democratic world, it's a challenge for the future."
Klitschko: More Than a Fight airs August 15 on Sky Documentaries and streaming service NOW.
