"I'm happy." World No. 2 from Belarus is not worried about the war in Ukraine, saying "we are just athletes.

World No. 2 Arina Sobolenko gave a big interview to the American media, where she touched upon the war in Ukraine, the attitude of Ukrainian athletes to it, and the situation with the suspension of Russian and Belarusian athletes. The favorite tennis player Alexander Lukashenko admitted that nothing had changed after a year of war, and all those who used to hate her and the rest of the Belarusians hate her as well.

The 25-year-old Minsk native is happy that the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) has allowed her to compete. The athlete tries to think less about the world situation.

"My only change is that I started to concentrate more on myself. I understand that I did nothing wrong to Ukraine, and it's not my fault, not the fault of the Russian and Belarusian athletes. We are just athletes, who are just doing sports. That's the only thing that helps me stay focused and just play tennis," tennis-infinity.com quoted Sobolenko as saying.

The tennis player doesn't understand why she's expected to do something anti-war, and she doesn't think Ukrainians' attitudes toward her will change.

"What can I change? This is war. It can't be that yesterday they hate us, today they love us, no. It doesn't work that way. Unfortunately, we do not control this situation in any way. The worst thing is that they expect something from us and we can't do anything. That's the trouble with our situation," Sobolenko summed up.

As OBOZREVATEL reported, Sobolenko, who in 2020 signed a letter in support of Alexander Lukashenko's regime, spoke cynically about the war in Ukraine.

Earlier, the Russian tennis player admitted how she is treated by "90% of Ukrainian players"

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