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Illya Marchenko: ‘I hope the western world will react’

We speak to the Ukrainian tennis player Illya Marchenko who tells us that, for him, Russian aggression in his homeland is sadly all too familiar. His war started eight years ago when he was forced to flee from his home in Donetsk. He and his wife packed a bag and have never returned. Despite what Russia is doing as a country, Illya explains why he wouldn’t necessarily support a ban on Russian sportspeople competing internationally – he says he has Russian friends in the tennis world and they don’t necessarily agree with what their country is doing.

Image: Illya Marchenko during the match between Arthur De Greef of BEL vs Illya Marchenko of UKR in the first round qualifications of 2019 Roland Garros, in Paris, France, on May 21, 2019. (Photo by Ibrahim Ezzat/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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7 minutes