Canucks' Zadorov was first Russian NHLer to condemn war in Ukraine
New Vancouver Canucks defenceman Nikita Zadorov is one of the few Russian athletes to publicly oppose Vladimir Putin.
He was the first Russian NHL player to publicly condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
He originally made his stance known in a two-hour interview filmed with Russian YouTuber Yuri Dud in Miami, Zadorov’s offseason home. Dud has more than 10 million subscribers and the video, which was published on September 21, has more than four million views at the time of writing.
He made additional comments to the media during the Calgary Flames training camp in September, where he discussed his decision to speak publicly.
“I feel like it’s really important for me. I think it’s important for me to speak personally,” the 28-year-old said. “I think hopefully I can change something in this world. It just sucks what’s going on over there right now, and I think it’s just important to be vocal.”
Nikita Zadorov speaks with the media following the second day of training camp. pic.twitter.com/vzizPzVtFr
— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) September 22, 2023
The 6’5″ defenceman said that he got an outpouring of support from people of all different backgrounds after his video interview went live.
“I got a lot of DMs, a lot of messages from Russian people, Ukrainian people, Belarussian, a lot from Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, all over Europe. People have been showing great support, I would say.”
Zadorov, who was born in Moscow, says that he “probably can’t go back anytime soon until Putin isn’t President or that regime is still there.”
“I can’t go back to my home country, but Florida is home for me right now, so I’m enjoying my time over there.”
As far as fear of retribution to loved ones back home, he says that’s less of a concern in his situation as “I only have parents there, and they’re on the other side of the view.”
Zadorov did say that the Russian players around the league had a group discussion on how to proceed after Russia first invaded Ukraine.
“We had a group chat. It went two different directions; some guys were against and some guys for,” he said. “There’s a lot of young kids thinking the way I think, they just don’t have a voice to speak up like this, but now hopefully they can feel the support from me.”
Zadorov also notably wore a Pride jersey in warmups for the game between the Calgary Flames and Los Angeles Kings on March 28 of this year, something that multiple Russian players across the league refused to do.
The full two-hour interview between Zadorov and Dud can be found below.
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