He last appeared in a fierce match in Australia in January, in recent months Ukrainian tennis player Serhiy Stachovsky has been filling the pages of newspapers with his testimonies from the army, where he enlisted to help defend the country against the Russian invasion. During a recent visit to the tournament in Bratislava, he described the horrors he had seen so far.
At the age of twelve, he moved from Ukraine to Frýdlant nad Ostravicí, attended school there and learned Czech and Slovak, so if someone asks him to speak in these two languages, he has no problem.
So when the former 31st player in the world came to see the challenger in Bratislava, he was willing to testify for the official Facebook profile of the tournament. He spoke not only about tennis, but for the most part also about his experience from the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“Someone has always asked me if I know what I will do when I meet a Russian. I replied that I did not know. But after looking at Hostomel and Buc, I have no problem. If I saw a Russian soldier now, I would have no mercy.” Stachovsky said.
He thus encounters the horrors discovered by the Ukrainian army in some Russian-occupied cities. On the bodies of tortured and executed inhabitants.
“We were there the day after the Russians left. It is impossible to describe in words what we saw. The men had it easier, they shot them right away. According to one expertise, one woman died after she was raped by 60 men,” he said.
Despite these massacres, the morale of his kind in arms is said to be great, and no one doubts that they will be able to defeat the Russians and drive them out of the territory.
“The problem is their predominance. There are 15 Russians per one of our tanks or cannons, not to mention ammunition, there is a ratio of perhaps 1 to 40. We need the help of Western countries,” he said.
He immediately praised the help of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. “In the first weeks of the war, the countries that still remember the Russian aggression reacted best. But they are small countries, albeit with a big heart. I think they have given us everything they have. We need the help of large armies, but they are slowly releasing their supplies. , “he said.
He currently travels a lot and commutes between his family, his own winery, tennis club and the army. “I have a brigade in Kharkov, so I return there and I try to help them mainly with the supply of material, now I have more of a command position,” he added.
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