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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Kirsty McCormack

Ukrainian tennis star wants air space shut as Russians 'have no morale' on ground

Tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky has begged for there to be a no fly zone in order to help Ukraine fight the Russians.

The 36-year-old sports star has left his family in Hungary to return to his home Kyiv in order to help his fellow Ukrainians.

Good Morning Britain hosts Susanna Reid and Rob Rinder spoke to Sergiy live from Ukraine on Wednesday's show and asked him why he had decided to go back.

"I don't know, it's hard to describe and it's hard to judge, I don't think that there's a right or wrong for me," he replied.

He then quickly added: "Sorry guys I'm not sure how long I'll be able to stay because we have an air raid coming in..."

Tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky has begged for there to be a no fly zone in order to help Ukraine fight the Russians (ITV)

Susanna and Rob then asked Sergiy what it was like being in Kyiv at the moment, to which he responded: "It's all quiet.

"There's no Russian troops inside the city lines, they've been all hunted or kicked out. There are a few directions that are not travelled right now, but in general Kyiv is pretty safe."

Rob was keen to find out what Sergiy's message to Europe is and what he thinks needs to be done next.

Good Morning Britain hosts Rob Rinder and Susanna Reid spoke to Sergiy live from Ukraine (ITV)

"The world needs to unite and stop this mess. I can see the support of all the people around the world, I've received hundreds of messages from friends and not friends, just people randomly.

"The support in even the restrictions and sanctions on Russian federation in terms of sport and culture, it's great, it's working, I'm very sure it's working, but it's not stopping him from what he's doing.

"And somebody really needs to put a stop. He threatens the world with a nuclear weapon while he is the one invading Ukraine, he is not being under threat."

Sergiy left his family in Hungary to go back to his home country of Ukraine and help fight the Russians (ITV)

The tennis star continued: "I'm not really sure we can have a person in today's world with that capability of nuclear weapons sitting in that place and we are not even sure what he's going to do next.

"We just need to close down the air space, give us a fighting chance to fight Russians because above they are superior, but on the ground they have no morale, they don't have the morale to fight us because we are fighting on our territory."

After watching his interview, a few GMB viewers took to Twitter to comment.

One person wrote: "Sergiy Stakhovsky is an admirable man #GMB," and another posted: "Sergiy Stakhovsky looks absolutely broken. So heartbreaking #GMB."

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV and ITV Hub.

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