The fall of a Ukrainian hero – POLITICO

Sergei Bubka was Ukraine’s most iconic sportsman. Now his identify is mud.

The legendary pole vaulter — a towering determine in post-Soviet Ukraine; dominating world championships and smashing information earlier than turning into an elite sports activities politician — has been linked to enterprise carried out in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied territories, whereas he lives it up in glitzy Monaco. 

As Ukraine continues to combat off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion within the freezing, soggy Donbas trenches, there isn’t any larger sin. Bubka, the previous athletic hero and native of Ukraine’s east, is now seen by many Ukrainians as a Russian collaborator.

For the person who as soon as soared, bringing satisfaction to newly unbiased Ukraine, how did all of it go so flawed?

A serious investigation by Ukrainian outlet Bihus.Data through the summer season revealed Bubka’s firm, Mont Blanc, was formally registered in Russia after the Kremlin’s all-out assault in Ukraine started.

Mont Blanc offered gas to Russian occupiers within the Donetsk Individuals’s Republic, a Russian puppet state in japanese Ukraine. The Ukrainian media outlet found — and printed — three contracts value greater than $14,000 on the time. Whereas the cash is relatively small in contrast with the billions sloshing round in Moscow’s battle financial system, any dealings with Russian occupiers are a purple line for Ukrainians. 

The corporate owns at the least six gasoline stations within the occupied Donetsk area and Bubka’s brother Vasiliy is listed as the corporate’s director on all contracts. After the reviews, Ukraine’s safety service, the SBU, opened an investigation, and Vasiliy has now been charged in absentia with collaborating with the Russians and “aiding a terrorist group.” 

In September, Bubka hit again on the reviews, posting a video on-line by which he mentioned: “I’ve all the time fought for Ukraine, however now a marketing campaign to destroy my fame has begun in opposition to me. I’ve not been to the occupied territories since 2014. I didn’t go to my family members and I wasn’t even capable of attend my mom’s funeral this 12 months. I’ve nothing to do with any enterprise within the occupied territory.” 

POLITICO reached out on to Bubka’s press crew for remark however they didn’t reply.

Bubka’s protestations, nevertheless, have didn’t persuade Ukrainians — and among the nation’s most distinguished athletes — that he’s exhibiting sufficient help for Kyiv’s battle effort.

“When the battle started, all athletes cooperated and waited for a press release from Bubka on the very least. We drafted a letter, but it surely by no means bore Bubka’s signature,” Yaroslava Mahuchikh, the reigning world excessive bounce champion, advised POLITICO.

The athletes had been demanding a ban on the Nationwide Olympic Committees of Russia and Belarus. Bubka is likely one of the influential 107 members of the Worldwide Olympic Committee.

“We known as and wrote to him. He made a press release later but it surely was meaningless. Nothing extra got here from him,” added Mahuchikh.

Bubka threatened a lawsuit in opposition to the Bihus journalists, however thus far that has not been filed. He needed to “defend his dignity,” mentioned Vadym Gutzeit, boss of Ukraine’s Nationwide Olympic Committee. Within the meantime, the identical outlet printed two extra contracts from Might 2023 exhibiting Bubka’s additional enterprise dealings within the Russian-controlled DPR.

Whereas authorized drama swirls in Ukraine, Bubka has been residing on the French Riviera, based on reviews in Ukrainian media and an individual near his household who was granted anonymity to debate private dynamics.

In Monte Carlo, Bubka attends AS Monaco soccer matches within the VIP zone. The Ligue Un membership is owned by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who’s topic to Ukrainian sanctions however not EU, Monegasque or U.S. measures.

The rejection Ukrainians really feel from Bubka extends down the ex-pole vaulter’s household tree.

Tennis gamers additionally sought assist from the influential sports activities politician, as his son, Sergei Bubka Jr., was knowledgeable tennis participant himself and nonetheless works inside the sport. 

“We had a really significant dialog with Sergei [junior] throughout a event in Miami,” mentioned the coach of a Ukrainian tennis participant. “He promised to positively convey our imaginative and prescient of tennis and the help we want from the NOC and the IOC to his father. Nothing occurred.

“He nonetheless exhibits up in any respect the foremost tournaments however now doesn’t make eye contact with me. He continues to speak with representatives of the aggressor nations, even with those that brazenly help the battle,” the coach added.

POLITICO requested Sergei Bubka Jr. for a response, however he additionally didn’t reply.

Bubka Sr. additionally actively averted Ukrainian observe and subject athletes when he encountered them on the athletics World Championships in Eugene, Oregon in July 2022, based on one individual with data of the incident. They had been strolling towards Bubka and as they had been about to greet the previous champion he turned his head away.

“I respect him as an athlete, however not as an individual,” added Mahuchikh.

Whereas Ukraine’s different celebrity athletes together with Mahuchikh, footballers Oleksandr Zinchenko and Andriy Shevchenko and legendary boxers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko have all backed the battle effort and condemned Putin, Bubka’s remarks about Russia have been extra tepid.

“I used to be touring by practice from Kyiv to Lviv. Some individuals close by didn’t have meals, and I shared what I had with them. I wanted then to drive to Uzhhorod to cross the border. I felt what it’s prefer to be a refugee,” Bubka mentioned, in his first assertion in regards to the battle in April 2022, about two months after Moscow launched its all-out assault. 

As Ukrainian legislation enforcement businesses advised Ukrainska Pravda, Bubka left the nation on March 1, 2022, with a particular allow (males of army age are usually not allowed out of Ukraine with out permission). After that, he exited the nation two extra instances. The final time he left was on July 4, 2022 — and he didn’t return.

“The battle should cease, peace and humanity should prevail,” was all he might muster about Russian aggression.

Bubka was adored by Ukrainians within the Nineteen Nineties, as essentially the most distinguished athlete to emerge from the nation following its independence after the Soviet Union’s collapse.

He was the primary pole vaulter to clear 6 meters and held 17 out of doors and 18 indoor world information. Throughout Bubka’s lively profession, he started organizing the Pole Vault Stars event in Donetsk, a metropolis which erected a monument in his honor in 1999, the place the Luhansk native spent a lot of his life.

After retiring in 2001, Bubka shifted his focus to politics. He turned a member of the IOC in 2008. From 2002 to 2006, he was a member of the Ukrainian parliament, primarily representing the Get together of Areas. 

In 2005, he changed Viktor Yanukovych — the controversial pro-Kremlin former president who triggered the widespread Euromaidan protests in winter 2013-14 and who lived in the identical condo constructing in Donetsk as Bubka did for years — as the pinnacle of the Ukrainian Nationwide Olympic Committee, holding his place till November 2022.

Bubka ran unsuccessfully each to be the IOC president in 2013 and lead the world athletics federation in 2015.

For these failed campaigns, Ukrainian athletes are counting their blessings.