Tokyo 2020 judoka in Kyiv speaks about horrors

Kyiv city council member Georgii Zantaraia spoke to e Yomiuri Shimbun via social media about the horri c situation in areas surrounding the Ukrainian capital, where many civilians were killed by invading Russian troops.

e 34-year-old is a former world champion judoka who represented Ukraine in three consecutive Olympics up to last summer’s Tokyo Games, where he nished in a tie for ninth place.

On April 6, Zantaraia drove with his friends to Borodianka, a town about 50 kilometers northwest of Kyiv, bringing food and medical supplies.

He said the situation in the town with a population of about 13,000 was “breathtaking.” Many buildings had collapsed. Debris had piled up. Windows of apartment complexes were blown out and the walls were charred.

A er Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24, the Russian troops aiming to capture Kyiv occupied nearby towns including Borodianka and Bucha for about a month. Many civilians were found dead in Bucha a er the Russian withdrawal, and many more may have been killed in Borodianka. Many are thought to have been trapped under collapsed buildings.

ere are reports that more than 200 people have gone missing.

Residents who survived the occupation in Borodianka were hiding in underground shelters.

“ey literally cried when they talked to me,” Zantaraia said when he met residents who were nally free to walk around in their town.

“When they saw bread, they were the happiest,” he said. “And that’s horrible.”

Pointing out that the victims in the town were civilians, including women and children, Zantaraia said, “It’s really very di cult ... realizing what people experienced there.”

Zantaraia is originally from Georgia. As a child, he and his family ed to Ukraine due to war in his homeland and started judo in his adopted home. He retired from competing in judo a er the Tokyo Olympics and had been running a judo school in Kyiv while working as a city council member.

“It’s hard to describe in words what war really is, although for the second time in my life I’ve had to deal with this horror,” he wrote on his Facebook page on April 7.

In the interview with e Yomiuri Shimbun, he thanked the Japanese people for thinking about Ukraine.

“e Russians ... killed not only the local army but also children. ey called it ... ‘help for Ukraine,’ but please don’t believe it,” he said. “We want peace!” (April 19)