Olympic wrestler and Ukraine's first Black parliament member Zhan Beleniuk says Ukraine is 'not a racist country'
- In 2019, Zhan Beleniuk made history as the first Black member of the Ukrainian Parliament.
- The wrestler also received a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, giving Ukraine their first gold in over 25 years.
In February, as Russian forces led a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, native-born resident Zhan Beleniuk was faced with the decision whether to stay in his home city of Kyiv with the threat of war around the corner.
He made the choice to stay to help support his country.
Two months later, Beleniuk says the city is still quiet. Though small pockets of people are beginning to re-enter the empty city, he says Kyiv is still far from the city it once was. "The situation seems [mostly] the same," Beleniuk told Insider. "There's a little more people now; [before], the streets were very empty."
Born to a Ukrainian mother and a Rwandan father, Beleniuk has always called Ukraine home. He was born in 1991, the same year that Ukraine won independence from the Soviet Union. For him, Ukraine has always been a free country. When he was young, his father died as a pilot in the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. His mother raised him as a single parent in Kyiv.
At the age of 9, Beleniuk took up wrestling, a sport that would eventually take him to the Olympics. Nowadays, while his sport takes him around the world, he says he misses his hometown while he's gone.
"It's my favorite city," Beleniuk said of Kyiv. "As a sportsman, I travel to a lot of cities around the world, but every time I do, I want to go home. Ukraine has given me all that I have now."
Beleniuk won his first gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, giving Ukraine not only its sole gold medal that year, but also the country's first gold medal in over 25 years. Beyond his career as an athlete, Beleniuk works to make change through politics. In 2019, he became the first Black member of the Ukrainian Parliament.
Afro-Ukrainians are an underrepresented portion of the country's population.
Beleniuk represents a small community of Afro-Ukrainians that live in the country. There are also thousands of African students across Ukrainian universities. Many immigrants come from African countries like Nigeria or Morocco to attend quality medical and technical schools at lower costs.
Since the invasion, Beleniuk says he has seen propaganda created by Russia that casts Ukraine in a negative light. Much of the propaganda is framed as Russian forces saving Ukrainians from Nazi oppressors. Russian media outlets have also capitalized on reports of alleged discrimination against people of color at the Ukrainian border.
After viral videos of African migrants being denied entry on trains and borders while fleeing from Russian forces descending onto Kyiv, social media outrage ensued. Beleniuk acknowledges that racism does exist among some in the country, but he denies that it is an issue unique to Ukraine.
"This is not only [a] Ukrainian problem, it's a problem in every country," he said. "I think every country has some idiots." He said that while he can't speak directly about the experiences of African students or immigrants, he believes these instances do not represent the country as a whole.
"I am a man who has [lived] in Ukraine, who was born here, who has studied here, went to university here, and who became an Olympic champion and a member of Ukrainian Parliament," he said. "I can tell you about the racism inside our country, and I know the real situation. I know we have maybe some problems. But this problem [is not unique to us]."
Despite the dangers of staying in his hometown, Beleniuk says leaving home is not an option. He plans to stay to help his fellow citizens and support those out on the frontlines defending their home country. "We need support from other partners because you can't stay alone in this war."
"Ukraine was good [to us] before the army came," he said. "But now we have to protect our freedom and independence and combat this war to fight for our future."