Oleksandr Usyk

Oleksandr Usyk is the absolute world heavyweight boxing champion and world super heavyweight champion. 

Usyk was in London when the full-scale war in Ukraine began; he was supposed to fly back home early in the morning on 24 February 2022, but his flight, like all other flights over Ukraine, was canceled. 

Usyk never doubted his decision to come back to Kyiv at any cost, so he flew to Warsaw and then hitchhiked the rest of the way. Just a couple of days after his return, Oleksandr joined the territorial defence force. 

From the very first days, Usyk also joined charity projects. His charity, the Usyk Foundation, helped purchase vehicles and communications equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, deliver humanitarian aid, and organize various events in support of Ukraine.

In October 2022, the champion became one of the ambassadors of UNITED24’s Rebuild Ukraine program. 

As for his first project, Oleksandr chose to rebuild an apartment building in Irpin; on the ground floor, there was a gym where Oleksii Dzhunkivskyi, a boxing coach, used to teach children. 

“I intuitively chose the fundraiser goal. I looked through the descriptions of eighteen affected apartment buildings and decided on this one. When I went to inspect it, I was deeply shocked. After all, in the basement of that building at 14-H Lysenko Street, there was a gym where my good friend, children's boxing coach Oleksii Dzhunkivskyi, used to train — russian soldiers killed him right in this gym during the occupation. I cannot describe the feeling I had when I went inside. It used to be full of children's laughter and the smell of sports passion. Now it just smells of darkness. I want to bring young athletes back to this gym, I want to return people to their homes. And that's why I'm personally making the first payment — 8 million hryvnias — in memory of Oleksii and in honor of all the brave Ukrainians,” said Usyk in an announcement about the fundraiser.

There is very little time left to complete the fundraising. Make your contribution here.

It was not the only contribution Usyk made. During the blackouts in December, when Russian shelling of critical infrastructure plunged the whole of Ukraine into darkness, the champion joined a collective fundraiser of UNITED24 ambassadors. Oleksandr donated $50,000 towards generators for Ukrainian hospitals and recorded a touching message from Kyiv with football legend Andrii Shevchenko and astronaut Scott Kelly, encouraging as many people around the world as possible to donate.