"It's very disappointing that no Russian player has come to me to tell me that she is sorry to see what her country is inflicting on mine. More Ukrainian civilians have died than soldiers, and among them children... it's terrible", lamented the 19-year-old player.

"One player texted me. Another came to chat with me, but no one gave me support or asked how I was doing. It's shocking," she insisted.

"It's not about politics, it's about human beings. It hurts me, it hurts me when I arrive here on the site, when I see these players, when I hear them say that their main problem, it's not being able to transfer their money or that sort of thing, it's unacceptable," she added.

"I don't know why the Russians are acting like this. It's no secret what's happening, we know what's going on, who's attacking the other, who's bombing the other. It's easy to understand and we don't cannot stay neutral," Kostyuk said.

Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, the positions taken by Russian players have been rare: the world No.1 Daniil Medvedev has called for peace while Andrey Rublev or Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, finalist of Roland-Garros 2021, have said their opposition to war.

"Horrible to live with"

"But saying 'no' to war means a lot of things. 'No to war' can mean stopping fighting, for example. But that's not an option for us. So their statements are meaningless to My eyes. What do they want? For Ukraine to lose, for Russia to win? I don't know..." she breathed.

Russian player Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova during her match against Rumanian Sorana Cirstea at the Australian Open in Melbourne, January 22, 2022 Aaron FRANCIS AFP/Archives

"Ukraine will never give up, but we know that Putin won't stop either, he's crazy. So we fight," continued the 54th player in the world.

Kostyuk also expressed his "disagreement" with the decision of the women's WTA and men's ATP circuits to allow Russians to play the tournaments, without mention of their country or representation of their flag.

"I'll make it short: look at other sports, what they've done. I'll leave it at that," she said dryly, referring to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which called for a ban Russians in international sports competitions, which many bodies, Fifa in the lead, have implemented.

Kostyuk further spoke about the difficulty of practicing his sport given the current situation.

"It was very hard to come to the court. When I woke up this morning, I didn't think I was going to play. My family is there. You go to bed at night and you don't know if the next day ... It's not an easy period, the first days were horrible to live, but the nervous system manages to adapt, it gets used to the situation", explained the one who will be opposed to the Belgian Elise Mertens in the next round.

If it is programmed on the switchboard, it will see the Ukrainian flag flying next to the American on the roof.

Whose yellow and blue colors were sported Thursday by Daria Savile (née Gavrilova), an Australian, Russian of origin.

Comments collected at a press conference by Nicolas PRATVIEL

© 2022 AFP