(Dan Tri) – World-famous boxing legend Vitali Klitschko, current Mayor of Kiev, is becoming an important figure in Ukraine in the fight against Russia.
Mayor Klitschko spoke in March in front of an apartment building that was hit by shelling (Photo: Getty).
With a doctorate degree and world boxing championship belts, Mayor Vitali Klitschko became the idol of many Ukrainians for his ability to reconcile muscular strength and intellectual strength in the same person.
Now, Mayor Klitschko is considered a great symbol of strength for leading Kiev against a wave of attacks by Russian forces to maintain this important stronghold.
As soon as Russia launched an air strike on the capital to gain control of the `heart` of Ukraine, Mr. Klitschko quickly arrived at the scene and strongly spoke out against Moscow’s special military campaign.
`Kiev is the largest city in Eastern Europe. Currently, we guess half the population (3.5 million people) have left,` Mr. Klitschko said at a time when Russian troops surrounded Kiev.
After days of fierce fighting, the capital Kiev has now somewhat returned to normal even though war is still raging in eastern and southern Ukraine.
There were still soldiers on the streets, checkpoints on the edges of the city and air raid sirens sounded regularly.
Even with the Russians nearby, Mayor Klitschko never stopped working outside City Hall, a massive stone building in central Kiev, surrounded by sandbags.
In his latest statement on May 30, he said that Russia launched another attack on Kiev early in the morning of the same day and the city’s air defense systems shot down incoming missiles, in
`A major attack!`, Kiev Mayor Klitschko said on the messaging app Telegram.
Russia repeatedly attacked the Ukrainian capital in May using a combination of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and missiles, mainly at night.
In a rare admission of damage to a military position, Ukraine said a runway was damaged and five aircraft were grounded in the western Khmelnitskiy region.
Russian state news agency RIA quoted the Ministry of Defense as saying more than one air base had been attacked.
`Dr. Steel Hammer`
Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine has made President Volodymyr Zelensky one of the most famous political figures in the world, even though he previously faced many criticisms.
In fact, before the war, Mr. Klitschko was famous with the nickname `Dr. Steel Hammer`, and became a true legend in the international boxing community.
The political turning point came for Mr. Klitschko in 2005, when he suffered a serious injury, temporarily leaving boxing for several years.
In March 2006, he was ranked at the top of the list of candidates running for the PORA-PRP Stabilization and Reform Bloc, which supported somewhat extreme nationalist views and Ukraine’s accession to NATO.
Next, he continued to try running for the Kiev mayor’s seat but was also unsuccessful.
In April 2010, this boxer took on the responsibility of leading the Democratic Union for Reform (UDAR) party.
Vitali Klitschko, two-time Ukrainian world heavyweight champion, during a fight in Moscow in 2012 (Photo: Getty).
And now, Mayor Klitschko is still scoring points with his strategy of fighting Russian forces.
His approval rating is often high.
Belov let the children play with toy cars at a park that Mr. Klitschko was instrumental in upgrading.
However, Mayor Klitschko also faces criticism.
`Ukraine is poor compared to most of Europe. But there are signs of growing wealth in Kiev, which owes much to Mayor Klitschko until the conflict broke out in February,` he said.
The city is now a mix of sleek glass towers that have sprung up in recent years, as well as old apartment blocks from the Soviet era and magnificent, ornate architectural gems dating from
Before the war, Mayor Klitschko faced criticism that he favored wealthy developers over ordinary residents.
Promise to mother
One of Mayor Klitschko’s strongest supporters is his younger brother, Wladimir, who also held many world boxing titles from 2006 to 2015. At one time, both Klitschko brothers continuously won in boxing.
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko and his younger brother Wladimir Klitschko, both former professional boxers, at City Hall in Kiev in February 2022 (Photo: AP).
When the `Orange Revolution` broke out in the fall of 2004, the Klitschko brothers and then-Kiev mayor Alexander Omelchenko publicly supported Viktor Yuschenko.
However, they never `resolved the problem in the ring`, as promised to the mother, who is Russian, while the father is Ukrainian.
In a recent interview with the Sunday Times newspaper, Mayor Klitschko said his family was loyal to the Soviet Union and once considered America an enemy.
The Klitschko brothers say, with their mixed Russian and Ukrainian heritage, they have no desire to fight the Russians.