Ukrainian tennis player Lyudmyla Kichenok shared heartbreaking news on social media, revealing that her home in Dnipro was bombed. Additionally, a tennis facility where she had frequently trained was completely wiped out following Russian strikes on her hometown.
On Friday, Russian forces carried out a drone assault on Dnipro, Ukraine. While many of the drones were intercepted, some successfully reached their targets, causing severe destruction. A restaurant complex and multiple residential buildings were among the structures devastated.
Kichenok shared on her Instagram Story, with a broken heart emoji, “A house where I lived in Dnipro was bombed tonight… A lot of injured people and we don’t know yet how many dead.” At the time, the WTA player was in the United States, preparing for the Charleston Open.
World No. 9 in doubles 🇺🇦Lyudmyla Kichenok revealed that the building she lived in back home in Dnipro was hit during today’s massive Russian drone attack.
Another reminder of the brutal reality Ukrainians continue to face every day. https://t.co/2XhXTmyxVv pic.twitter.com/8he3hHzuLD
— Ukrainian Tennis • BTU (@ukrtennis_eng) March 28, 2025
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Kichenok was still in the country. In a past interview, she admitted that just two days before the war began, she couldn’t fathom such an event unfolding. When the invasion started, she and her family were overcome with terror.
“For the first two hours, my whole body was shaking and it was very scary,” Kichenok recalled, saying that no one slept in those first couple of days. “It was some kind of terrible dream.”
Ultimately, her family made the difficult decision to flee. They packed their belongings, got into a car, and set off for Moldova. Kichenok herself drove for 36 hours straight to ensure their safety.
In the early months of the war, focusing on tennis was incredibly challenging for Kichenok. Though the emotional weight remains, she has still managed to achieve remarkable milestones in recent years. She reached a career-high doubles ranking of No. 3, captured the Wimbledon mixed doubles title in 2023, and secured the 2024 US Open women’s doubles championship, which postponed her wedding to fiancé Stas Khmarskiy, Jelena Ostapenko’s coach. (via Tennis World USA)
I feel so sorry for the Ukrainians. And then people criticise them for bringing politics into sport. How can they not when they are going through stuff like this?