Free Republic

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has told Der Spiegel that Ukraine is moving towards authoritarianism, seemingly making a veiled criticism of President Volodymyr Zelensky."At some point we will no longer be any different from Russia, where everything depends on the whim of one man," the former heavyweight boxing champion said in a Dec. 1 interview.Despite being the mayor of Ukraine's capital, Klitschko said he hasn't talked to Zelensky since the full-scale invasion began.

The 51-year-old mayor of Kyiv, and former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, told The Telegraph that increasing Russian attacks on power plants have left his country on the brink of a fresh humanitarian crisis. “We are doing everything we can do to save the lives of our people and to protect them,” he said, banging his huge fists on the table. “But this winter will definitely be a huge challenge for us.”In little over a fortnight, Moscow’s strikes on power stations and the wider grid have left the country grappling with outages and questioning whether the system will survive...

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau has launched a criminal case on high treason and money laundering against Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko and his two deputies, local media reported. The case was filed under an October 18th ruling of the Anti-Corruption Court.

On Saturday night at the O2 Arena in Hamburg Germany, Wladimir Klitschko (63-3-0, 53 knockouts) pulverized Kubrat Pulev (20-1, 11 KOs), knocking him out in the fifth round with a lethal left hook. Klitschko’s victory marked his 17th consecutive title defense. He is third in line behind Joe Louis (25) and Larry Holmes (20). At 38, Klitschko seems unbeatable. Eight years into his reign, he has dominated his division more than any other active champion today. He holds the IBF, WBA, and WBO titles, but remains one belt away from realizing his most immediate goal, unifying the heavyweight crown.

Just days after his May 25 election victory, former boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko gets his first outing as mayor of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. The 6ft 7in boxer-turned-protest leader-turned mayor is perfectly at ease on stage. But as soon as he plunges into the crowd, tensions mount. "You've got to deal with all these banks that refuse to give us our money back," says a woman, referring to the fall in the value of the national currency. Klitschko tries to enter the parliament building, but he's stopped by mothers of conscripts serving in the east of the country. "We...

Boxer-turned-politician Vitali Klitschko on Saturday pulled out of the race for Ukraine's president, throwing his weight instead behind a billionaire businessman.....Klitschko's withdrawal from the presidential race would set up a battle between confectionary businessman Poroshenko and Ukraine's former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, in the May 25 elections. After more than two years in prison, Tymoshenko was released in February following Yanukovych's ouster, her archrival.

In the wake of a March 16 referendum in which Crimeans voted to join the Russian Federation, Ukrainian leaders refused to cede any part of the peninsula, calling on their troops to prepare for war. "Crimea was, is, and will be our territory," said Defense Minister Ihor Tenyukh in a statement delivered at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center on March 17. Former heavyweight boxing champion and leader of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform Vitali Klitschko announced that Ukrainian troops would remain at their bases, even after March 21, the end of a peace treaty signed by the interior ministries...

...Illustrating how testy relations with Washington have become, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, earlier the target of American monitoring of her cellphone, issued an unusually sharp statement saying that Ms. Nuland’s remarks were “completely unacceptable.”...

Germany's Angela Merkel has said a US official's apparent insult of the EU's efforts to mediate in the Ukraine crisis is "totally unacceptable". Victoria Nuland has apologised after she referred disparagingly to the EU's role during a conversation said to be with the US ambassador to Ukraine. Germany's Angela Merkel has said a US official's apparent insult of the EU's efforts to mediate in the Ukraine crisis is "totally unacceptable". Victoria Nuland has apologised after she referred disparagingly to the EU's role during a conversation said to be with the US ambassador to Ukraine. A recording of the exchange was...

The fight for Ukraine has now become a contest between the Russian president and the German chancellor. Putin won the first round. But Merkel and her fellow Europeans are grooming professional heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko to be their new strongman. [...] While "regime change" is too strong a term for what Germany is seeking, it's not entirely off base. Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the European People's Party (EPP), a family of European conservative parties, have chosen Klitschko as their de facto representative in Ukraine. His job is to unite and lead the opposition -- on the street,...

Urbane liberals are joining black-booted skinheads to protest on the streets of Kiev, but if the Orange Revolution of nine years ago is to be repeated, they need a leader to unite them. Enter Vitali Klitschko, a towering world boxing champion with a doctorate in sports science, who is looking increasingly like the opposition's most powerful contender. Protesters and commentators saw Klitschko emerging on Tuesday as a leader-in-waiting, as the opposition digs in to unseat President Viktor Yanukovich after he ditched a trade pact with the European Union to revive economic ties with former Soviet master Moscow.

Vitali Klitschko was doing most of his talking in English, which made sense because, after all, he had just starred in prime time on American television. Besides, he didn't need a whole lot of words to describe what he had just done to poor Cris Arreola. Talking about the fight was easy enough in any of the four languages Klitschko speaks. The actual fight seemed pretty easy, too, at least to people watching Saturday night at Staples Center. They came to watch Arreola fight like a warrior and win a piece of the heavyweight title. They ended up seeing Klitschko...

"Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, left, and Ukrainian heavywieght boxer Vitaliy Klitschko shake hands during the 4th annual summit Yalta European Strategy in the resort town of Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine, Friday, June 29, 2007."

KIEV (AFP) - Ukraine boxing hero Vitaly Klitschko vowed that he would be victorious in his first political fight and deal a surprise knockout to Kiev's veteran mayor in Sunday's election for the top city post. "Politics and sport have a lot in common," Klitschko told reporters after casting a ballot in the center of the Ukrainian capital along with his wife, onetime model Natalya. "If you doubt your victory, you'll never win." The 34-year-old, a former WBC heavyweight champion who retired in November after giving up his fight against injury, is aiming to defeat Kiev's veteran Mayor Olexander Omelchenko...

Klitschko is Peter’s Worst Nightmare by George Kimball ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Advertised as a ‘heavyweight eliminator,’ Saturday night’s fight at Boardwalk Hall may have lived up to its billing: With any luck it may have eliminated both heavyweights. What does it say about Samuel Peter that he knocked his opponent down three times, was never down in his fight, but lost on the cards of all three ringside judges, as well as those of every reporter at ringside? What does it say about Wladimir Klitschko that he got knocked down by a boxer as clumsy and amateurish as Peter...

Klitschko sends Williams (England) to floor 4 times. Knock out in 8th round. Klitschko was wearing orange scarf in support of Yushchenko and democracy in Ukraine. It should be big boost for supporters of Yushchenko in Ukraine, going into elections on Dec. 26.

Younger boxing brother backs Yushchenko: ‘the people are the authority’ (Post Staff) - Heavyweight boxer Volodymyr Klitschko spoke to hundreds of thousands of supporters of opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in central Kyiv during the early afternoon of Nov. 23. An estimated million opposition protesters are clogging central Kyiv on this snowy afternoon during Ukraine’s political crisis. Wearing a scarf and tie in Yushchenko’s signature colors of bright orange, Klitschko – whose older brother Vitaly is heavyweight champion of the world and who flew into Kyiv from Las Vegas – said “Viktor Andreyevich Yushchenko is our president.”...