Oleksandra Oliynykova used her post-match remarks at Roland Garros to defend Ukraine and accuse Russian tennis players of helping sustain the Kremlin’s war message through silence and public support.
After beating Olena Pryadunkina at the French Open, Oliynykova said many Russian players are part of propaganda simply by refusing to speak out on the war. She said others go further, using social media, playing in tournaments linked to Gazprom, or openly backing Vladimir Putin.
“These players are part of the propaganda. By staying silent, they are supporting the regime,” she said, adding that some Russian tennis players “actively participate in propaganda through social media or by playing in tournaments linked to Gazprom” and that some are “direct active followers of Putin.”
She argued that the influence of prominent athletes makes that silence matter far beyond tennis. Fans, she said, see players with money, fame and reach, and that visibility is then used to normalize aggression against Ukraine for Russian audiences. “We are talking about people with high public visibility and a lot of power of influence,” she said. “All the money, advertising, and platform they receive here can later be used to support precisely the horrible things that are happening.”
The comments fit a wider pattern around Russian athletes in international sport, where silence on the war has often been treated as a political position in itself. Oliynykova’s remarks were framed as a defense of Ukraine, and she said too little has been said about the role some players play in spreading or legitimizing pro-Kremlin messaging.
Her criticism also pointed to a fault line that has followed Russian tennis since the full-scale invasion: not every player has been publicly aligned with Moscow, but, in her view, enough are tied to propaganda, sponsorships or open support for Putin to make the sport part of the information battle as well as the competitive one.
For Oliynykova, the issue is not abstract. It is about the public standing athletes carry, and how quickly that standing can be converted into political influence. Her message in Paris was blunt: in a war that continues to exact a toll on Ukraine, silence from famous Russian players is not neutral.
