Boxing champ urges Trump to remember Putin's crimes against his homeland

WORLD heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk has urged Donald Trump to take Russia's crimes against Ukrainians into account during any peace negotiations.

- By Zak Garber-Purkis

Asked by the Express for his message to the US President and his Vice President JD Vance about the war, the fighter thanked America's leadership for their efforts.

But the sporting great, who is due to fight Londoner Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium on July 19, emphasised the scale of the suffering inflicted by Vladimir Putin's invading forces, calling the war "genocide".

He said: "I would express my gratitude for the efforts toward achieving peace.

"I want to believe that President Trump is sincere in his intentions. May God grant him health.

"But I would also like to emphasise one important point that is often overlooked in discussions about the war. Ukrainians are not fighting for territories.

"Ukrainians are fighting for the people who live on those lands. These are our people our family, our loved ones, our friends. How could we possibly hand them over to a country that has been killing them for years?"

He continued: "We know very well what Russia is doing to our people living in the territories it occupies and we don't learn this from Instagram stories. It's not just the atrocities in Bucha; it's prisons and torture, it's the kidnapping of tens of thousands of children to Russia to turn them into 'Russians'.