A BITTER feud between Ukraine’s most famous men erupted over the death of a seven year-old girl, a new documentary reveals.
Former boxing heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko accuses the war torn country’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, of creeping “authoritarianism” in a disturbing sign of internal conflict.
ReutersVitali Klitschko examines damage from a Russian missile attack on Kyiv[/caption]
GettyVitali was never knocked out when he ruled heavyweight boxing[/caption]
AFPKlitschko has a bitter feud with President Zelensky[/caption]
In return the president, who has been praised for the way he stood up to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s invading forces in February 2022, blames Klitschko for a child dying when a bomb shelter in the capital Kyiv was locked.
The mutual animosity dates back to when Zelensky was a comedian who poked fun at the boxer turned politician.
Vitali, 53, who is the mayor of Kyiv, clearly has ambitions to be president of his nation.
When Vitali is asked what his relationship is like with the President he replies: “No relationship at all. I haven’t seen him at all. Well I’ve seen him on TV, of course.”
But as the Sky documentary titled Klitschko: More Than A Fight reveals, Vitali has overcome greater challenges in his turbulent life.
It looks at how his “very strict” air force major general father Volodymyr tragically died from cancer after helping to clean up Chernobyl following the nuclear plant disaster in 1986 and how Vitali failed a drugs test prior to the Olympic Games in 1996.
The film by Oscar winning director Kevin Macdonald also reveals that Vitali’s marriage to former model Natalia Yegorova had secretly ended before Russia’s full scale invasion more than two years ago.
Vitali claims that he’d be willing to go to the front line to fight, saying of Ukraine’s troops: “If I wasn’t mayor it would be me in their place”.
Soviet youth
Vitali was born in the communist Soviet Union in Kyrgyzstan to a Russian mum and a Ukrainian father.
Him and his younger brother Wladimir, 48, followed their dad around various military bases while their mum Nadezhda worked as a teacher.
It was a tough upbringing where they were expected to follow their father’s commands at all times.
Vitali says: “My father was too strict, but I learned to be grateful for the things he taught me, discipline has been essential for us.”
When Vitali was aged eight they moved to Kyiv and in 1986 they all went to live near the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.
Little did they know that they would be caught up in one of the most shocking disasters of modern times, when one of the reactors exploded in April that year sending deadly radiation across Europe.
Almost everyone who was with him passed away
Vitali Klitschko
Vitali remembers: “Father disappeared. He came back and told us the secret, there was a huge accident in Chernobyl.
“He ordered us not to go outside. Father spent that spring, summer and autumn stationed at Chernobyl. Almost everyone who was with him passed away.”
Volodymyr did make it out alive but working around the sticken power station led to leukaemia which took his life in 2011.
How his hero father was treated by the authorities, has affected Vitali’s political thinking.
He reveals: “My father was diagnosed with leukaemia. They said it was because of Chernobyl.
“According to the law my mother was entitled to money for the funeral but the officials demanded a bribe.”
GettyThe Klitschko brothers were both heavyweight champs[/caption]
GettyThe former champ has been Mayor of Kyiv throughout the conflict[/caption]
Sporting chance
Even though martial arts were banned under Soviet rules, Vitali trained how to kickbox.
Once the ban was lifted he was an immediate success in the ring, regularly defeating opponents.
The fall of Communism in 1991 brought other opportunities, which Vitali claims he turned down.
He says that “criminals propositioned us to be their henchmen” but he refused the offer and he has long denied accusations that he worked as a debt collector for the violent gangster Viktor Rybalko.
By this point Vitali had switched to boxing and looked set to bring glory to Ukraine at their first Olympic Games, having been established as a sovereign nation free from Soviet rule.
But he was accused of doping, which he denies, and banned for two years from amateur boxing.
His brother Wladimir took his place in the squad and won gold aged 20, which he says “was a life changing moment”.
Both brothers became professional heavyweight champions, but they always refused to fight each other to establish who was the best.
Model wife
GettyVitali’s ex-wfie Natalia was on the German version of Strictly called Let’s Dance[/caption]
GettyWladimir dated actress Hayden Panettiere and Vitali married Natalia[/caption]
As Ukraine’s most famous man, Vitali got a front row seat at fashion shows and a good look at model Natalia Yegorova as she walked down the runway.
She could feel him watching her but realised he had a “true heart” beyond the tough exterior.
They married in 1996 and had three children.
Everyone believed the Klitschko relationship was a strong one, but in reality they had not been living together for years.
Everyone outside thought we were still man and wife, perfect couple
Natalia Yegorova
The truth came out in August 2022, shortly after Natalia moved to Germany with their children for safety.
Natalia reveals: “I was crying for one week because I didn’t know who to call.
“I was calling to my ex husband.
“Everyone outside thought we were still man and wife, perfect couple”.
The threat to Vitali and his brother Wladimir, who has helped buy armoured vehicles and drones for front line troops, is very real.
Vitali’s son Max says: “I was scared for them all the time. When the war started the Russian propagandists said they would take the president, they would take the mayor and they would line them up on the main street and hang them.”
Political enemies
After living in Germany and fighting in the United States for many years, Vitali grew to believe that Ukraine had to be a pro Western democracy.
He made speeches in Kyiv’s Maidan square and faced down riot cops after the country’s former president Viktor Yanukovych went back on an election promise to bring closer ties with the European Union in 2014.
Yanukovych eventually fled to Russia and Putin invaded large sections of eastern Ukraine.
A few months later Vitali was elected mayor of Kyiv on a pro-EU and anti-corruption platform.
But he was the butt of many jokes, particularly from Zelensky when he was a TV star, and has a reputation for being too outspoken.
In the documentary we see Vitali refer to one journalist as a “d***head”.
Both Zelensky and Vitali stayed in Kyiv when Putin sent tanks and missiles into the city in February in 2022.
Vitali says: “To fight is the first principle in life. For your life and for your principles.”
To fight is the first principle in life
Vitali Klitschko
The men were praised for standing up to Russia, but soon cracks happeared in this uneasy political alliance.
In November 2022 Zelensky said that “the biggest problems” with power cuts were in Kyiv and that the mayor needed to do more.
Some citizens protested against Vitali, claiming he should send money to the front line rather than spend it on new parks.
Vitali believes “central government” has grabbed too many powers through the martial law that was imposed on the country.
In one off camera moment, Vitali warns there is a risk Ukraine will be “living in Russia 2.0”.
But his critics have hit back that it is normal to have martial law at times of war and that the government needs to put resources into defeating the Russian invaders.
The harshest criticism from Zelensky came when a seven-year-old girl and her mother died from a Russian missile attack on the capital after being locked out of an air raid shelter last year.
The president said “we have enemies at home” but rather than naming Vitali indicated he was referring to him by adding “knockout”.
Zelensky claimed the shelters are the mayor’s responsibility but under martial law it turned out to be the president’s responsibility.
Klitschko: More Than A Fight is streaming now on Sky
AFPThe Klitschko brothers defended Kyiv when Russia invaded[/caption]
SkyVitali promised to rebuild homes destroyed by Russian missiles[/caption]
Klitschko Kings
FOR more than a decade the Klitschko brothers dominated the world of heavyweight boxing.
Vitali and Wladimir won more world title fights than any other brothers in the boxing division, but always refused to take each other on in the ring.
Numerous contenders attempted to take their crowns in the late 1990s and Noughties, but only a handful succeeded.
They included some of the most memorable bouts in the sport’s history, with opponents often being floored by the brother’s hammer blows.
In one the most controversial contests the fight between underdog Vitali and Britain’s Lennox Lewis was stopped in 2003 due a cut above the eye of the Ukrainian who appeared to be heading towards victory on points.
Rather than facing Vitali in a rematch, Lennox retired.
Vitali, who won his first heavyweight title in 1999 by knocking out British boxer Herbie Hide in the second round, also defeated Derek Chisora in 2011.
His younger brother Wladimir won his first world championship in 2000 by beating the highly rated American Chris Byrd, who’d forced his brother to retire in an earlier bout when Vitali injured his shoulder.
When he beat champion David Haye in 2011, all the heavyweight titles were in the hands of the Kiltschko brothers.
But Wladimir suffered his first taste of defeat in 2015 when Tyson Fury took his crown and two years later Anthony Joshua also out-pointed him.
Vitali retired in 2013 and Wladimir four years later.