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?
Exactly. The comments criticising and even ridiculing Ukrainian players for not shaking the hands of the Russian opposition are all over social media. If any one of them had to endure Russian aggression since 2014, they’d have a lot less to say.
I greatly sympathize with Ukrainians, especially those who are not rich enough to flee the country, which is the majority. As someone who has experienced two wars, I can say that it is the worst thing and the darkest time a person can go through. However, I am against mixing sports with politics, because it brings no benefit to anyone and only complicates the situation. Many countries have been through conflicts, and there are dozens of wars happening around the world, even if some receive much more media coverage than others. It is perfectly fine for athletes to raise awareness about issues in their country and use their platform to seek help, but I don’t believe they should add to the division—especially since no athlete is responsible for the war.
I agree that ideally, it isn’t of any benefit to be mixing sports with politics. However, the issue I have with the Russian invasion of Ukraine is that the Russian regime uses their athletes as props to further promote their barbaric actions. It is corrupt politicians who take these athletes achievements and promote it as their own- and unfortunately, several athletes are more than happy to be used as political pawns and have even shown support for this invasion. Politics and sports shouldn’t mix, but they do- and by not shaking hands, this is a symbolic, non-violent protest against an occupying state.
Karo, we agree that politics and sports should not mix, and we also agree that in reality they often intersect, because politics inevitably shape our lives more than we’d like to admit. I have no issue with symbolic gestures like refusing to shake hands—that’s a personal choice and a form of expression. However, I don’t support refusing to compete against someone solely based on their nationality. It undermines the sport and doesn’t contribute to any meaningful resolution.