'Revealing': Lord Addington reviews 'Klitschko: More Than a Fight'

Wladimir Klitschko & Vitali Klitschko in a bombed-out building, Kyiv | Image: ©Sky UK Ltd

Lord Addington

In the opening sequences of this documentary we witness the Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, walking through the aftermath of a missile strike on a city tower apartment block, having to step past corpses. Throughout the film, the realities of living in a city under bombardment become apparent. The clip of a young woman running down the street very close to a missile landing in obvious terror is something I won’t forget in a hurry. This was even more shocking than a mother trying to comfort a baby who clearly had a head wound caused by another missile strike.

Klitschko is the 6ft 7in former world heavyweight boxing champion whose brother Wladimir is also a former world champion. Much of the documentary is about the rise of the two brothers as professional boxers and the influence of their father. A major general in the former USSR – whose death from leukaemia is suspected to be a result of cleanup operations around Chernobyl – he raised his family to regard America and the West as the enemy.

A lot of time is spent on Klitschko doing his day job; making decisions, being exhausted, meeting the public (who seem to like him most of the time) normally wearing military or military-type kit. Then there are the trips to the frontline to deliver equipment to troops. He emphasises these are troops from Kyiv and that they’re short of essential kit.

There are slick clips of Zelensky mocking the supposedly inarticulate Klitschko dating back over a decade
 

What surprised me about the documentary was the relationship with Volodymyr Zelensky. There are slick clips of Zelensky mocking the supposedly inarticulate Klitschko dating back over a decade when the now-president was a comic and Klitschko was a political newbie. Set against this is footage of Klitschko trying unsuccessfully to bring calm to the streets of Kyiv in 2014, when demonstrations became deadly riots as people protested against the then pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych – events which led to his fall from power.

Back in the present, we see Klitschko claiming that Zelensky is trying to centralise power and even accusing him of wanting to create a state akin to Russia – including preventing the mayors of the large Ukrainian cities operating as leaders of the opposition, and indeed we are shown the fall of one mayor on corruption charges brought by central government. Then we see a public demonstration accusing Klitschko of indulging in vanity projects that aren’t concentrated on winning the war. The great bone of contention is a park in the middle of Kyiv which Klitschko wants to build on.

The final act of the film is a row over whether the civic authorities of Kyiv should have ensured that a bomb shelter was open to people who were subsequently killed by a Russian strike. Zelensky accuses Klitschko of failing the public with pointed references to “knock-outs”. In the closing scenes we witness Klitschko pointing to a document stating that under martial law the central state is responsible. It’s a classic old-fashioned political row – but, in this case, with fatal consequences.

Lord Addington is a Liberal Democrat peer and spokesperson for sport

Klitschko: More Than a Fight
Directed by: Kevin Macdonald & Edgar Dubrovskiy
Broadcaster: Sky documentaries / NowTV

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