“Oleksandra will meet Anna Bondar in the second round of the WTA 250 tournament in Cluj-Napocaβ, β write: sport.ua
“Anna Bondar participated in the Northern Palmyra Trophy exhibition tournament in December 2022 – a tournament organized in Russia as a demonstrative disregard for international sanctions and restrictions imposed on the aggressor country. This tournament was financed by Gazprom, one of the key financial pillars of the Russian military machine.
This is the same money for which Russia kills and maims Ukrainian women and children. This is the same money that is used to destroy our fathers, brothers and husbands who defend their families, towns and villages on their land.
Going to a tournament in Russia in December 2022 and accepting payment from the funds of Gazprom is, from a moral point of view, the same as going to play a tournament in Nazi Germany in 1941 and being rewarded with jewelry from Jews exterminated in the Auschwitz and Treblinka death camps. The same evil – only 80 years later.
This is a question of humanity, humanity and basic human values. I can’t ignore it. The world tennis community should not ignore this. Fans should not forget about it.
Therefore, I do not consider it possible for me to take a picture or shake hands with a person who received money from sources directly related to the war against my country.
I admit that Anna could have made a mistake in making this decision – although it was an extremely serious mistake. I am ready to shake her hand in the future if she publicly admits this mistake, apologizes to the Ukrainian people and clearly and directly condemns Russian aggression against Ukraine, Russia’s aggressor state and war criminal Putin.
I am part of the WTA and I respect our organization. That is why I am ready to work together with the WTA – openly, constructively and responsibly – to protect tennis as a sport from cases that, by their anti-human and anti-human nature, compromise its values. Tennis cannot exist outside the boundaries of humanity, and we are obliged to respond when these boundaries are deliberately violated.”
In the first round of the competition in Cluj, Oliynikova was defeated by Maiar Sherif. The meeting with Bondar will take place on February 4.
