Berlin (AP) – Biathlete Erik Lesser continues his solidarity campaign on Instagram after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
After the ex-world champion initially gave his channel to his Ukrainian biathlon colleague Anastasiya Merkuschina for 24 hours, the Ukrainian tennis pro Sergei Stachowski now shares photos.
“This is my Kyiv. As you can see, these are not military buildings. Russian rockets are killing civilians here,” wrote the 36-year-old to a picture of a destroyed skyscraper and demanded: “Bring your soldiers home.” Stachowski had played at the Australian Open a few weeks ago, but traveled to his home country after the invasion and is now involved in Kyiv.
Lesser wants to use his reach “so that more people in Russia can get real news.” Because of an aid campaign for his Russian colleague Eduard Latypow in January, around 30,000 fans from the largest country in the world followed him. After his action, around 10,000 followed him. Nevertheless, the Thuringian, who ends his career after the season, has gained many new followers from all over the world. If it was a good 117,000 last Saturday, it’s already 157,000 followers. The 33-year-old had announced that he would continue to make his Instagram channel available to Ukrainian athletes.