For several days, he has been interviewing in particular in the French media. In his office as mayor, Vitali Klitschko, with tired features, the Ukrainian flag behind his chair, takes the time to answer journalists’ questions between two hospital visits. Since February 24, this former heavyweight boxer, several times world champion, has been defending his city alongside Ukrainian soldiers. On BFM TV, the man who is one of the great resistance figures alongside President Zelensky, confided that he was “ready to die” : “If my country needed my life, I would give my life for my country.”
Dr. Ironfist
Vitali Klitschko was born in 1971 in Belovodskoye in the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic (former USSR, now Kyrgyzstan). Her mother is a teacher, her father is a soldier and on the front line during the disaster at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl in 1986. He is what is called a “liquidator”, sent by the authorities to the scene of the tragedy to limit the consequences of the accident as much as possible. Vitali Klitschko’s father is exposed to considerable levels of radiation. He died of cancer in 2011 at the age of 64.
His story, the young Vitali, 2m02, gonna write it in the ring. He began his boxing career at the age of 24, at first only as an amateur. His record is impressive: 195 wins, five losses. As a professional, he also has a string of successes. The one nicknamed “Dr. Ironfist”, Doctor Iron Fist in French, became multiple world champion in the 2000s and won many belts. He wins 45 of his 47 fights including 41 by KO
The Ukrainian missed the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. He tested positive for nandrolone. Assure him that it was only a treatment to heal his leg. In the United States, his brother Wladimir, also a boxer, brought home the gold medal.
– KAY NIETFELD / DPA
The boxer who became mayor
Klitschko put a definitive end to his career in 2013. Politics, he had already tried in 2006 when he ran for mayor of Kiev. He was elected pro-European deputy in 2012. During the Euromaidan revolution of 2013-2014, he spoke several times at the podium on Maidan square and became one of the major figures of the pro-European demonstrations in Ukraine. At the time, he planned to run for president in 2014 but finally withdrew and supported Petro Poroshenko who would be elected. “Dr. Ironfist” is then running for mayor of Kiev. He will be re-elected twice.
It’s easier to be world heavyweight champion than mayor.”confided Vitali Klitschko to the Guardian in 2018. In politics, there are no rules. They hit you in the back, below the belt. It’s very hard. And you are responsible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. (…) You have to know exactly where to go. You have to have the will and the courage to do it.”
Eight years later, Vitali Klitschko has traded in his boxing gloves and his suit and tie for weapons. His target? Vladimir Putin and his army.
“Ready to die” to defend his country
Just days before the start of the Russian offensive in late February, Klitschko pledged to “defend” the Ukrainian capital if fears of Russian invasion were realized. The mayor of Kiev had just visited with his brother Wladimir, his almost perfect look-alike, a recruitment center in Kiev for volunteers ready to fight if the city was attacked. “I train all the time, I do training as a former officer and head of territorial defense (…) I can shoot with almost any weapon”he declared on February 10 to AFP.
Since then, as promised, the 50-year-old has swapped his mayor of Kiev jacket for a trellis for organize the defense of his city and its three million inhabitants. He even refused to be exfiltrated from the capital despite the risk to his life, despite the bombardments that hit Kiev every day. “If my country needed my life, I would give my life for my country. And I will” he confided on BFM TV a few days ago.
With his brother, Vitali Klitschko is a figure of resistance against the Russian army. Both appear on social networks, united. The older brother’s hand resting on the younger brother’s shoulder.
Vitali Klitschko is determined. In the program C à vous on France 5, on March 7, he declared: “We don’t want to die. But if necessary we are ready. We are not only fighting for Ukraine but also for Europe, for France. Because who knows how far Putin will go?”