Zinchenko would leave the Premier and Champions League to defend Ukraine in the war against Russia

Arsenal defender Oleksandr Zinchenko declared this Friday that he will leave the English Premier League to fight in Ukraine if his country, at war for two years after the invasion of Russia, calls him to join the army.

“I think the answer is clear. Would go [a combatir]”, declared the 27-year-old left-back and 60 times capped by Ukraine in statements to the BBC’s “Newsnight” program, which asked him about an eventual incorporation into his country’s army.

The ‘Gunners’ player added that former classmates from his school days were fighting.

“It’s hard to get the idea that not long ago we were at the same school, playing in the playground or on the soccer field, and that now they have to be defending our country. Honestly, it’s hard to accept, but that’s the way it is. “We cannot abandon,” he stated.

Zinchenko, former Manchester City player, indicated in this BBC broadcast that he had made a donation of one million pounds [1,16 millones de euros o 1,23 millones de dólares] to help the inhabitants of their country, plunged into conflict since February 2022.

“I know some people might think it’s a lot easier for me to be here. [en Londres] that there [en Ucrania]”, he admitted. “I really hope this war ends soon,” she wished.

Ukrainian President Volodomir Zelensky promulgated a law this week that lowered the age of mobilization for the Ukrainian army from 27 to 25 years, Parliament indicated on its website.

The mobilization of the army has been a point of contention in a country exhausted by more than two years of war with Russia, which has caused enormous military losses. Zelensky declared in December that the army wanted to mobilize up to half a million people to fight.

The Arsenal player, who began his career at Russian club Ufa, stated that he no longer has contact with his friends or former teammates who are in Russia.

“Since the invasion, very few of them have sent me messages and I can’t blame them because it’s not their fault,” he said. “I can’t tell them to demonstrate or do this or that, I know they would be risking being imprisoned,” he stressed.

For Zinchenko, this conflict has shown “all Ukrainians that you cannot be friends” with the Russians.

“We will never forget what they have done to us, what they have done to our people. That is what I will teach my children. And my children will teach their children. This is not acceptable,” she stated.