Heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk pleads with Putin to ‘stop this war’ in passionate speech on social media

Heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk has pleaded with Russian president Vladimir Putin to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

198 people have been killed since Russia launched its invasion on Thursday with three children among the dead.

Usyk, the reigning WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight champion, was in London earlier this week but has returned to his homeland, calling on his countrymen to unite.

After issuing that rallying cry, the 35-year-old has now called for Putin to back down and urged the Russian people to make their own protests known.

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‘Good morning my name is Oleksandr Uysk. I want to appeal to the Russian people,’ he said in a video shared on Instagram.

‘If you consider us brotherly people, do not let your military, your children, go to our country. Stop attacking us.

‘I also appeal to President Putin. Stop this war! Don’t give us ultimatums and declare your conditions, just sit down at the negotiating table.

‘We need to talk and stop everything. Our children, our mothers, our grandmothers and ordinary people are hiding in basements.

‘We have to act as we do. We are protecting ourselves. Stop it. Stop this war.’

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Former heavyweight champions Vitaly and Wladimir Klitschko meanwhile have vowed to take up arms to defend Ukraine against the invasion over the last week.

‘It’s already a bloody war. I don’t have another choice, I have to do that. I’ll be fighting,’ Vitaly, the major of Kyiv, told ITV’s Good