Zinchenko: I feel I should go and fight
OLEKSANDR ZINCHENKO has admitted he would have returned home to Ukraine to stand with his compatriots in their war with Russia if it wasn’t for his wife and daughter in England.
The Manchester City star, who captains his country, spoke of his devastation at the events of the last 11 days in a moving interview with Gary Lineker on the BBC’S Football Focus.
He said: “It’s so tough. It’s not just words but if it was not for my daughter, not [for] my family, I would be there.
“Yes, part of me feels I should be there. I was just born like that, I grew up like that.
“I know the people from my country, the mentality, and all of them think exactly the same.
“I am so proud to be Ukrainian and I will be forever, for the rest of my life.
“When you are watching the people, how they fight for their lives, there are no words.
Mentality
“I know the people, the mentality of the people from my country, they prefer to die and they will die, but they are not going to give anything.”
Zinchenko, 25, revealed how his wife, Vlada, woke him at midnight – 3am Ukraine time – on February 24 to alert him to Russia’s invasion of their homeland.
He said: “My wife woke me up and she was crying. She showed me the videos, the pictures, what’s going on now in Ukraine and that feeling I cannot even explain because I had never felt myself in that position.
“I’m just crying. I drive the car from the training ground and I just cry from nothing.
“It’s everything in my head. Imagine the place where you were born, where you were growing up and there is just empty ground.
“I cannot imagine how the people are surviving over there at the moment.
“I cannot imagine the feelings they are experiencing. I know a lot of things which probably the rest of the world don’t know because I have friends there and a lot of people from different cities are sending me the facts.
“The people are starving, people are sleeping underground, in bunkers, wherever, they cannot live a proper life.”
The midfielder said he was both surprised and bitterly disappointed that no player from Russia’s national team had spoken out.
He added: “They can say their positions but they don’t, they just ignore it, and I don’t know why.”