`Congrats to Russian propaganda’: Ukrainian star Marta Kostyuk unloads at tennis’ blind eye over war

Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk has let loose on the tennis world for “forgetting” about Russia invading her homeland, saying her mother still sends her videos of missiles flying over Kyiv.

Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk during her match against Elise Mertens. Picture: Lillian Suwanrumpha

Ukrainian tennis star Marta Kostyuk has accused the western world of no longer caring about Russia’s invasion of her home country and again questioned why Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to compete at the Australian Open.

Kostyuk booked a place in the fourth round at Melbourne Park for the first time in her career when she defeated Russian Elina Avanesyan in three sets on Friday.

As she has done since last year’s Australian Open, Kostyuk refused to shake her Russian rival’s hand at the net after the match.

The 21-year-old has become one of the faces of the tension between Ukrainian and Russian and Belarusian players, and remained outspoken on the issue since the war began.

At the French Open last year she was booed by fans for refusing to shake Belarusian opponent Aryna Sabalenka’s hand after her straight-sets defeat.

On Friday, fellow Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko also chose not to shake Sabalenka’s hand after their match on Rod Laver Arena.

Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk reacts after a point against Russia's Elina Avanesyan during their women's singles match on day six of the Australian Open. Picture: Anthony Wallace/AFP.

In December, Kostyuk withdrew from an exhibition match in France just hours before she was due to play 16-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva – who also won through to the fourth round in Melbourne on Friday.

After her win over Avanesyan, Kostyuk was asked if she thought the tennis world had “kind of forgotten about the war”.

“The war is still there. People are still dying every day. I still don’t understand what all these players are doing here,” Kostyuk said.

“Nothing really changed in my world. I feel like in general it’s a lot of processes happening to come to this point where people forget about it because, yeah, people get used to it.

“I understand that everyone has their own issues, and everyone is focused on their thing. I think I’m here to remind everyone all the time that it’s still on, and it should be stopped. It’s not normal that it’s happening.

“My whole family is in Kyiv right now. My mum sends me videos when there are missiles flying over their house. I watch this. To me it’s incredible that it’s still going on, and it’s been almost two years.

“It really feels like everyone is just … I feel like the West tries to silence everything down, like to talk less about it, to not escalate anything.”

Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk during her match against Elise Mertens. Picture: Lillian Suwanrumpha

Kostyuk said the Ukrainian people were “just in survival mode for the last two years” and her efforts on the tennis court paled in comparison.

“I try to do my best, and I compete, and I try to succeed. At the end of the day I look around and I don’t feel like all of this really matters as much,” she said.

“It’s just a tennis match. It’s just a tennis tournament. Out there is real life. People I think forget about (that).

“Unfortunately it’s not breaking news anymore … it’s no drama. Why talk about it if there’s no drama?”

Kostyuk also accused some of her fellow players of putting money ahead of doing what was right, in reference to a handful of top ATP and WTA players choosing to compete at an exhibition event in St Petersburg in December.

“Go to Russia and play this tournament where they pay you a lot of money – I’m pretty sure they just got paid a lot of money, so that’s why they went there,” she said.

“At the end of the day not everything is just about the money. I mean, by far not about the money.

“I just have different beliefs, and I truly don’t understand these players. I don’t know why they did it.

“Yeah, congrats to Russia’s propaganda. It works. Not always, but it works, unfortunately.”