Mixed martial arts fighter Vladimir Mineev told Match TV that he will soon go to the Northern Military District zone to begin performing his direct duties.

In September 2022, Mineev received a summons and joined the Russian Armed Forces in February 2023. Several times the fighter returned from the SVO zone to participate in fights.

—Aren’t you afraid to travel to the Northern Military District zone?

“It’s humanly scary, of course, when everything flies, whistles, and explodes.”

– What are your immediate plans?

– Go to the newly annexed (regions) and begin fulfilling your direct duties.

— And you combine this with performances…

— Yes, the leadership allowed me, the battalion commander released me from duty for a couple of months. I prepared, had a fight with Magomed Ismailov. Unfortunately, I was injured – an impacted fracture of the second metacarpal bone, which did not allow me to combine it with combat operations – I cannot shoot.

Now I have recovered, I asked the battalion commander to visit the forum. During this time, we did good work with Sergei Kryukov, executive director of the Association of Student Sports Clubs. We are also present in Ufa with him to be on the agenda, to focus on the vectors set by the leadership and the sports community.

The most important issue for me on the forum is student sports. It is developing, and with the arrival of our team we are significantly increasing the popularity of this sport. We have educational and coaching programs to create opinion leaders. It is important that student sports is a separate status, it is not mass. A very important mission is the most passionate age, from 17 to 25 years old. And if you look at history, Mao Zedong relied on such guys in his policy. We must correctly adopt this mechanism, develop our youth in the vector of patriotism and state orientation,” Mineev told Match TV.

In July, Mineev fought a boxing match against Magomed Ismailov at the PULSE UP Boxing tournament. After eight rounds, Mineev won by unanimous decision, having suffered a hand injury.