‘I am angry every day’: Zinchenko will not be silenced over war in Ukraine

H alf an hour in Oleksandr Zinchenko’s company is a harrowing experience. The Ukrainian spends most of the conversation blinking back tears and he speaks with raw, unbridled passion about the horrors being inflicted on his country by Russia.

“I am angry even now,” the Arsenal player says. “I am angry every single day because I really want to know what they are doing – to achieve what? To win what?

“I hope this war is going to finish soon and in the end you’re just going to think: ‘Wow, how many people have been killed? How many people have lost one of their circle? How many people lost their houses, jobs or whatever – and for what?’ I just really want to know.”

Barely a moment goes by when Zinchenko does not find himself thinking about the invasion. He is in London, a long way from the conflict, but there is no escape from the mental trauma of knowing bombs are raining down on your compatriots every day. Zinchenko sees the images on the news, scrolls through social media, and the sorrow threatens to consume him. The shocking destruction of the Kakhovka dam is the latest devastating blow.

“I was talking to some of the volunteers helping around there,” he says. “The stories I heard … Some people don’t have the opportunity to leave their houses because the water is so high already. Some don’t have an opportunity to go because they are quite old. I heard about one woman, holding two little babies, born just a few months ago. She was on the roof, holding the last stone and trying to survive. Unfortunately, she didn’t. With the kids.”

Zinchenko turns away after being asked how he copes. “Oh please,” he says. “Please don’t get in my head because I don’t know what is there at the moment.”

Somehow, he and other Ukrainians are