Elina SVITOLINA: “There is someone on the Tour who supports the murders”

Last week, a meeting was held between Ukrainian tennis players and the leadership of the WTA.

The online conference was attended by Marta Kostyuk, Lesya Tsurenko and Elina Svitolina, and WTA’s Steve Simon, Vanessa Webb, Anya Wreg, Christy Ahn, Brandon Burke and Sloane Stephens.

The main topic of the meeting is the violation of the rights of Ukrainians and the inaction of the WTA in the propaganda and support of the military aggression against Ukraine in Tours.

Elina Svitolina commented on the outcome of this meeting:

“After the conversation between Lesya Tsurenko and Steve Simon, the issue of affirming support for military aggression in tennis received an incredible backlash and we needed to find out if that was really the WTA’s position.

On Gasanova’s Instagram account, we have a very clear example of how she justified Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, how she justified the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine, and how she repeated Russian propaganda narratives about the war. In fact, there is a person in Tur who openly supports murder, looting, rape, kidnapping and seizure of lands in our country.

“Is that enough?”, “Is it normal for someone like this to stay in the Tour?”, “Is it fair for the Ukrainian women and all the other participants of the Tour?” in response to the question of Lesya and Marta we heard the same … Silence. There are no arguments. No explanation.

We will not leave this question, because the question of the safety of Ukrainian women quite logically follows from it. If, on the Tour, the Russians and Belarusians support military aggression, like Hasanov, it means that they wish death for the Ukrainians, our relatives, friends and finally us. Or is it the norm in the 21st century to co-exist with such people? We are waiting for a response from the WTA.”