“Usually if you lose a struggle, there’s one other day,” whispers Zhan Beleniuk, Ukraine’s sole gold medallist on the Tokyo 2020 Video games and its first black member of parliament, as he awaits the Russian offensive on Kyiv. “However right here you possibly can die at any second. And it’s not simply your personal life. It’s the lives of your loved ones. It’s the way forward for your nation. These are the best stakes ever.”
Seven months in the past, the 31-year-old celebrated his Olympic victory within the 87kg Greco-Roman wrestling by performing a conventional Hopak dance and asserting to the world that his all desires had come true. Now, he tells the Guardian, he feels caught “in a nightmare that’s unattainable to consider”.
“It’s actually onerous to explain the extent of terror in Ukraine,” Beleniuk says. “You in all probability need to be right here to know the extent of it. There are such a lot of tales. So many tragedies.”
On Beleniuk’s desk there are three pistols, and a grenade for good measure. The most effective weapons, he factors out, are wanted on the entrance. But when a Russian hit squad comes for him – he and different MPs are stated to be on a kill record – he might be as prepared as he could be. “I don’t have any army expertise however I’ve to be ready,” he says.
For now, although, he spends his time serving to to repair issues in his space together with liaising with troopers and volunteers. However, he admits, it’s unattainable to disregard the disaster happening in cities like Mariupol, the place tens of 1000’s of individuals are confined to freezing basements with no energy, primary sanitation and little meals or water, as their metropolis is turned to rubble.
How, he asks, can Europe watch this occur in 2022? “One of many largest issues we face is that Russian troops are blocking humanitarian corridors in lots of locations so individuals are with out meals, with out water, and they’re truly dying of starvation and dehydration,” he says, choking up. “A number of days in the past there was even a case of a kid who died of dehydration.”
Tragedy has struck nearer to dwelling, too. “My ex-classmate was killed as a result of he was placing his pregnant spouse right into a shelter, after which he went again to take extra stuff to carry again,” he says. “And he was principally blown up, together with three different younger guys. It’s chilling.”
Not less than, he says, he has managed to get his mum out of Kyiv. “It was fairly tough to have her round as a result of she loves me a lot, and her love could be a little bit disruptive as a result of she is fearful a lot about me,” he says, in a uncommon second of levity. “So it was for my very own peace of thoughts to carry her someplace safer. And in addition to provide me some area to do the work that I’m presupposed to do.”
It appears scarcely plausible that till a fortnight in the past Ukraine was a vibrant European nation. Few individuals appeared to encapsulate the hope for a greater future as a lot as Beleniuk, who was born in 1991, the yr the nation declared independence from the Soviet Union.
Three years later his Rwandan father died within the nation’s civil struggle, leaving him to be raised by his Ukrainian mom in a one-room flat in Kyiv. But regardless of his robust upbringing, Beleniuk thrived. Having established himself as a vastly profitable sportsman he was then elected as an MP in president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s fledgling Servant of the Folks social gathering in 2019.
For Beleniuk, being a servant of the individuals means staying in Kyiv – regardless of the penalties. “We’ve heard that the Russians have focused the president and sure members of parliament, as a result of they wish to herald a puppet who will comply with their orders,” he says. “However I’m from Kyiv. I’m not going wherever, and neither is the president.”
Wrestlers typically have a popularity for being extra brawn than mind. Beleniuk, nevertheless, is extra like a warrior-poet. When requested whether or not sport is in any means a metaphor for struggle he’s blunt. “You possibly can’t draw any parallels,” he says. “With sport there is no such thing as a concern of an surprising loss of life, or your loved ones dying at any time.
“And, funnily sufficient, I’ve some buddies who’re severe athletes, and we did martial arts or wrestling collectively, and so they have left for the most secure a part of the nation. And there are others who’ve by no means proven any indicators of aggression, who’re on the entrance and able to do the whole lot wanted.
“You by no means know precisely how individuals will reply to a struggle till it occurs.”
Whereas he waits for the oncoming storm, Beleniuk is set to make use of his recognition throughout jap Europe to affect hearts and minds in Russia. “It’s very difficult as a result of it actually seems like Russian society is brainwashed,” he admits. “Irrespective of how a lot proof they see, they interpret it in their very own means. They speak concerning the Ukrainians killing individuals themselves or destroying infrastructure simply to spite the Russians. And it’s so tough to persuade them in any other case.”
That frustration additionally extends to the dearth of elite Russian athletes talking out in opposition to the invasion. “I see two basic responses,” he says. “The primary is silence. The second is the assist of the killers and murderers of the assaults, of Putin’s politics, of this devastation of our cities in Ukraine. That has been actually disappointing as a result of that comes from elite athletes, world champions and Olympians.”
A few of the Russian propaganda has additionally targeted on Ukraine being a neo-Nazi state and being racist – one thing that Beleniuk insists is pure lies.
It’s not that Beleniuk has not skilled racism. After he returned from Tokyo a gang of youths confronted him. Nonetheless he insists that such incidents are the exception, not the rule.
“The Russian propaganda is attempting to say that folks in Ukraine are racist, and that black individuals are harassed and abused within the nation,” he says. “However I’ve to let you know – and I believe I’ve the appropriate to do this – it’s not true. I’m a very good instance of that. I’m a member of parliament and it was made potential for me to make all my desires come true.”
As our interview attracts to a detailed, Beleniuk praises the Worldwide Olympic Committee for making use of sporting sanctions and says companies withdrawing from Russia have helped. However he insists that the west must do extra to avoid wasting Ukraine from even larger destruction and loss of life.
The reply, he insists, is to implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine to cease Russia bombing cities from the air. In any other case he says that 1000’s extra harmless civilians and youngsters will die.
“Sadly, it hasn’t been finished as a result of all people’s afraid of a 3rd world struggle,” he says. “Putin is a terrorist who’s attempting to intimidate the remainder of the world with nuclear weapons. And we perceive that. However Ukraine is the final put up defending Europe, defending democracy and defending the democratic independence of the European states.
“And if Putin just isn’t stopped now, what’s going to occur subsequent? What if he desires the Baltic states, and he says that traditionally they belong to the Soviet Union and to the Russian Empire? What then?”
For the second, Beleniuk watches, waits and steels himself for the struggle to return. “After I was getting ready for the Olympics, I assumed it was the toughest time of my life as a result of I needed to mix working in parliament with coaching for Tokyo,” he says, laughing at his naivety. “However nowadays are a much more severe trial when it comes to significance and accountability.
“Nonetheless, we’re 100% prepared. And the whole lot is being finished to organize the town for a potential assault in order that it might survive. As a result of it’s our metropolis – and our nation.”
