Elina Svitolina’s Kyiv padel club damaged in Russian attack as she urges international action

Less than a season after opening Svito Padel in Kyiv, Elina Svitolina has become one of the latest Ukrainian athletes to see a sports project directly damaged by Russia’s war. The tennis star said Tuesday that the club was heavily hit during an attack on the Ukrainian capital.

Posting on Instagram alongside photos of fire and a partly collapsed ceiling, Svitolina placed the destruction within a much larger toll. “As of today, 776 Ukrainian athletes and sports officials have been killed as a result of Russian aggression. 942 sports facilities across Ukraine have been damaged or completely destroyed. Today, my club, Svito Padel, became one of them,” she wrote.

The world No. 9 launched the club with former men’s tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky four months ago. Staff said the damage was caused by a blast wave from a Russian strike on a nearby food factory, and repair work has already started.

Svitolina said the issue goes beyond one damaged building, as Ukrainian athletes and the country’s younger generation cannot train and prepare for international competition on equal terms with rivals elsewhere. She ended her message with a direct appeal to the international sports community: “With this message I want to reach out to our international partners and friends who support and cheer for us, Ukrainian athletes, on the international stage, and ask for your support and concrete actions that can stop the aggressor.”

Svitolina last competed in the United States, reaching the third round in singles at the US Open and the mixed doubles semifinals with her French husband, Gaël Monfils.

Local news reports from the latest overnight attack said missiles and drones damaged houses, storage halls, and a school in the Kyiv area. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukrainian athletes have repeatedly drawn attention to the destruction of sports infrastructure as part of the wider toll on civilian life.