WASHINGTON — We live in a bubble, in the Western world and especially in the United States. Two vast oceans separate us from much of the world. Our wealth, politics, and privilege govern much of the rest. We can choose to isolate ourselves, to ignore what is happening in the rest of the world. But the world has a habit of snapping us out of our reverie, making us think and making us pay attention.
Wladimir Klitschko came to Washington to disrupt.
“You’re not the only one,” Klitschko said Tuesday. “Even in Germany, they are in a bubble. Ukraine, Germany and Poland fall in between. It’s not that far. It’s so close, and (not) so far.
Klitschko, now 47, has gray hair and weariness in his bones. He is now seven years removed from his last stint as boxing’s heavyweight champion of the world, a reign he held, for non-consecutive periods, for 12 years, longer than any heavyweight champion heavy with history. He and his brother Vitali, I sounded the alarm for much of the past decade on the dangers facing his homeland, before and after its 2022 invasion by Vladimir Putin’s Russian army.
Wladimir Klitschko doesn’t just talk. He joined the front in Ukraine in 2022, at the start of the war. Vitali, who was also heavyweight champion in different periods between 1999 and 2013, has been mayor of kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, since 2014. Like most Ukrainians engaged in the fight, Wladimir is grateful for the help provided by the West and the United States since the start of the war.
But Ukraine, Klitschko says, needs more to survive.
“I think people won’t understand how dangerous it is if they don’t have practical examples of losing a loved one,” he said Tuesday on Capitol Hill, before a reception in his honor sponsored by the Consumer Technology Association.
“Their family, their friends, their loved ones, their neighbors,” he said. “Otherwise, everything is in the press, the newspapers, the radio, the television. It exists, but it is neither the first nor the last war on this planet. The news always comes with the bad news, so to speak. Something bad is happening. You don’t have good news. The news is bad. If you have someone associated, someone from your neighborhood, someone you’re a fan of, and I’m talking about my brother Vitali and myself, I can touch the minds of politicians and the public who support politics in a certain direction. And politicians are very dependent on audiences – on their own audiences, on their party’s audiences, and there is also connectivity, connection and reaction.
Since the start of the war, nearly four million people have been displaced from their homes, with 6.5 million people crossing the border into neighboring countries. Poland, Ukraine’s closest neighbor to the west, has hosted more than a million refugees alone.
Wladimir Klitschko says he and his brother feel “some frustration” that their messages about the imminent Russian threat have not been heeded.
“The sanctions did not work, or they were not enough,” he said. “Business with Russia continued. Russia had enough financial assets to flex its military muscles and expand its army. …We have not been heard. Unfortunately, we are now saying that we will not be the last country if we fail. After Ukraine, with Putin’s Russia, we know and understand that if we fail, the Baltic countries will be next. Now, with a border closer to NATO countries, with Sweden and Finland, they will definitely capture these countries – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, Poland and other countries, Romania, Moldova, etc. – which were under Russian domination. And we always say it. And unfortunately, we don’t get enough support.
“We do the work. We don’t need soldiers (from the United States) or NATO countries. We will do it ourselves. Just give us the tools. We need the tools. We don’t need 20 tanks and 20 planes, we need a thousand tanks. Because the front line extends for more than 2,000 kilometers. Many Russian forces are therefore gathered on the front line. So we have to fight them and outwit them, because we don’t have as many soldiers as Russia. And we can only do this with better weapons and more weapons.”
In the ring, the Klitschkos could handle things themselves. There’s a reason Wladimir, who went 64-5 in his professional careerwas nicknamed “Dr. Steel Hammer.” (Both brothers hold doctorates in sports science.) Seven years after his last fight, he’s still shredded.
But sport is not war.
“I try to reach people’s minds, their souls and their hearts,” Klitschko said. “I am not only on the west side, but also on the front, as has been the case since the start of the war two years ago, more than two years ago, when the front line of the war was was in the city of kyiv, and the city was almost surrounded and almost taken by Russian forces. And we can’t forget the start of the war, and the massacre of civilians in Bucha . …these are personal experiences, of being on the front lines, of understanding that 80, 90 percent of the fighters – that is to say men and women – are volunteers who are committed to defending the country. … These people on the front lines are permanently mentally disabled and will remain so for the rest of their lives. It is important for them to recharge their batteries, to see their family, their children again and to recharge their energies. They are exhausted, mentally and physically.
Initially, Vitali Klitschko was supposed to join his brother here. But he could not leave kyiv. So Wladimir went around alone, meeting with congressional leaders from both sides, State Department officials and others, to try to persuade House Republicans to drop their opposition to US military aid programs. ‘Ukraine. A Senate bill that approved $60 billion in funding for Ukraine last month has stalled in the House, although the Biden administration announced Tuesday it would send an additional $300 million in funding. aid to Ukraine.
Once again, Wladimir was grateful. But he likened the $300 million to a bandage on a very deep wound. On Tuesday afternoon, Klitschko was honored by the CTA in its House of Innovation.
“What does “innovation” mean? “, Klitschko asked the audience. “It means participating in evolution – making life better, exploring the world, technology – making life better, simpler and more efficient. Preserve our history, preserve our Mother Nature and, essentially, improve our living conditions.
During the first months of the war, much of the world, in deed and on social media, stood up in support of Ukraine, celebrating the actions of its citizens, who not only resisted the formidable Russian army but he spoke of a possible resumption of the former Republic of Crimeawhich Russia annexed in 2014, although most countries still recognize it as part of Ukraine.
But as the war reached a stalemate, the world’s attention to it waned – while another war, in Israel and Gaza, captured many people’s attention. Yet Ukraine’s needs remain. NATO has expanded to now include Sweden and Finland, but on the ground, Ukraine is beginning to return part of its territory. Independent observers warn that Ukraine needs more firepower. Article 5 of the NATO Treaty makes it clear that an attack on one NATO country must be considered an attack on all NATO countries, requiring a rapid response from NATO. The only time Article 5 has been invoked since NATO’s creation after World War II was after 9/11.
“There is no doubt – no doubt – that if Ukraine falls, this will be a war that America no longer has the luxury of ignoring,” Nolan Peterson said. a former Air Force pilot who now works as a journalist and a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.
“We’re not going to be able to lose this war and just move on,” Peterson said. “This war will drag us into another global conflagration. »
Klitschko says that “90 percent” of the proposed $60 billion earmarked for Ukraine would actually stay in the United States because increased weapons manufacturing, as well as the expansion of U.S. defense capabilities, smart and intelligence-gathering technologies, create jobs here. But we must be sure: the weapons that America would create and ship to Ukraine are in mind. A strong Ukraine means a stronger Europe, he says; A stronger Europe means a stronger United States.
“And if the United States thinks that the war is going on somewhere (else) and we are safe and comfortable here, you have to understand that the bad guys are going to band together, as they are doing now, to support Russia,” he said. “Some other countries are supplying them with kamikaze drones and weapons. We live on one planet and we have to trade etc. So in a more complicated way, in the long run, you can’t stand aside and look away. This will also come into this country. Good and evil have always been present on this planet. You must choose your side. If you look away, you automatically support the evil. If you actively participate, you choose the side of good in this case.
It didn’t take much time for Wladimir or Vitali Klitschko to decide to be uncomfortable in their retirement, to turn away from the quiet post-war life that either could have had, whether here or in Germany, where they are loved, with their wealth, their intelligence and their privileges. They could have been connected as deeply as they wanted to the fight game, whether as promoters or broadcasters. Instead, they left. And marched towards their native land. Their determination to defend it is a matter of life and death, and if their lives are necessary to save Ukraine, they are prepared for it as diligently as they have been for each of their fights.
“In times of war, I would like things to be settled differently, through negotiations,” Wladmir Klitschko finally said. “But there is only one negotiation: to get the (bleep) out of Ukraine.”
(Photo by Wladimir Klitschko: Johannes Simon / Getty Images)