According to the tennis player, officials “are sitting in their bubble and don’t fully understand what’s happening”
Leading Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina spoke harshly about the “neutral” position Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) regarding support for Ukraine, which suffers daily from Russian military aggression.
“The WTA don’t want to listen to us. And they won’t be anymore, I think, even though we don’t give up. And this is a very sad situation. When the full-scale war began, we went to the WTA office and spoke with the organization’s chairman, Steve Simon.”
“We were there in the office, stood there for about two hours, told him, but nothing was done after that. Then there were several more meetings with him. The war has been going on for almost two years, there is absolutely no conscious reaction.”
“They say that they are doing something there, but this is some very minimal help. They don’t use their platform to support Ukrainians. They have an attitude that they want to be neutral and equidistant.”
“It hurts our hearts to see such a situation, Ukrainians. Our families and people live under shelling. And they live in some kind of bubble of their own and do not fully understand what is happening. Therefore, we were very actively involved in this issue. We have already spent a lot of energy, writing various letters. We do this all the time.”
“What is the reason for such inaction by the WTA? Probably money. We always told them what was happening with Ukrainian tennis, what kind of help was needed. They always responded that they were simply neutral observers.”
Earlier, in October, Svitolina’s colleague and one of Ukraine’s leading tennis players Lesya Tsurenko criticized the WTA for keeping silent about the war and condoning the appearance of prohibited symbols at competitions.
Svitolina has recently been actively involved not only in tennis, but also in volunteer activities.
Previously, Elina, together with donors of the UNITED24 platform, helped raise funds for the restoration of the Munghausen residential complex in Irpen. Also, the tennis player, together with the famous Ukrainian poet Sergei Zhadan, met with soldiers of the volunteer unit “Charter”, who were given reconnaissance drones.
In the early hours of February 24, 2022, Russia launched rocket and air strikes on most Ukrainian cities and then launched a full-scale military invasion. The war against Russia has continued for the 629th day.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
