'We can do more' - Heartbroken Elina Svitolina to donate prize money to Ukraine plight in war with Russia

Ukrainian tennis star Elina Svitolina has spoken about feeling ‘heartbroken’ for friends and family back home as the conflict with invading Russian forces continues. Speaking exclusively to Eurosport’s Barbara Schett, the 27-year-old also spoke about feeling ‘useless’ from a distance but intends to donate her prize money from recent events to her home country. Ad/> Svitolina also called on the tennis world to do more to raise awareness of the situation and help those suffering amid the aggression.

WTA DubaiMuguruza, Krejcikova, Swiatek, Svitolina crash out in Dubai16/02/2022 AT 15:33 “It's very tough to explain each time that I talk with my family or with my friends,” an emotional Svitolina revealed. “It's really tough to find words how to explain what's happening, “Really until the very last moment we did not believe that this war would actually start and then everything just happened at night and everything started. Everyone is terrified, everyone is heartbroken.

“My family is there. Lots of my friends who didn't leave the country are there. They are fighting for their life, some of them are fighting for our country.

It takes a lot of courage and it's unbelievable that some people actually took weapons in their hands and went to fight for our land. “I have my parents there, I have my grandmother, I have my uncle, my aunt. I try to talk with them quite constantly because it's really important to keep the contact with them, how I can help them.

“The most painful thing I would say is that I feel completely useless because I want to help them. I want to do something for them. “Some of my friends are without electricity, without water, without food.