Ukrainian boxing legend Wladimir Klitschko is desperately urging other countries to send more weapons to Ukraine amid the brutal Russian invasion — pleading, “We cannot defend our country with fists.”
“First and mostly, we need weapons,” the former world heavyweight champion said in an interview with ABC News Sunday alongside his brother Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv.
“We cannot defend our country with fists.”
Wladimir Klitschko recently enlisted in the Ukrainian army to defend his home country against Russia.
The former boxer also urged the rest of the world to divest from Russia.
“Every cent and every trade that you do with Russia and every cent that Russia is getting, they’re using for weapons to kill us Ukrainians,” said Klitschko, who retired in 2017 and has a daughter with American actress Hayden Panettiere.
Ukraine has been under unrelenting attack from the bordering country since late February. Russian troops have killed more than 1,800 Ukrainian civilians since they invaded, according to the latest United Nations count Monday.
However, the real death toll is feared to be much higher. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that the loss of human life in the besieged city of Mariupol alone is in the “tens of thousands.”
“Mariupol has been destroyed, there are tens of thousands of dead, but even despite this, the Russians are not stopping their offensive,” Zelensky told South Korea’s parliament Monday as he begged for more support.
Klitschko’s plea for more weapons echoes the advice of several policy analysts and lawmakers who spoke to The Post Friday.
The experts said the US must send Ukraine all the weapons it asks for as the invasion reaches a pivotal moment in which extra arms could sway the war in Ukraine’s favor.
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark also wrote in an op-ed published in The Post Friday that there is little time to waste to give Ukrainian forces hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds, tanks and MiGs and Sukhoi aircraft.
NATO pledged Thursday to send more weapons to support Ukraine amid reports of growing Russian brutality against Ukrainian civilians.
Klitschko warned other countries that the world will face great danger if Russia prevails.
“Ukraine is just the beginning,” he said.
“They will roll further, and if we’re not going to stop them in Ukraine, they will go further. If we fail, the rest of the world, the free world will fail.”
