Alexander Grischuk on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:“It’s Extremely Painful for Me”.

After Round 1 of the second leg of the FIDE Grand Prix in Belgrade Russian Grandmaster Alexander Grischuk made a statement and shared his feeling about Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

“Now I don’t think I will be able to recover at all. I am very sad, very pained with what is going on. I will not use the word ‘war’ because it’s prohibited in our media and I want them to be able to quote me. I was and would support Russia in 99% of international conflicts but this time I cannot manage to do that. In my view what we are doing is very wrong from both moral view and practical view. And maybe our government, our president think that if they stop what’s going on they will have to resign and maybe if they really think about future of Russia maybe they think that it will bring big shocks in Russia, maybe it will make Russia potentially break into pieces, some regions maybe get separated. On the other hand, it happened in Russia’s history many times. It would not be the first time. For example 100 years ago after February and October revolutions, we had a terrible civil war, we had to resign in WW1, we lost a lot of territories. Russia broke several times in history but it always resurrected. Russia is like a liquid terminator, it all comes together if we know that truth is on our side, we are feeling that we are with truth, with God, with justice. And now at least me, I am losing this feeling with every day of what is going on, with every victim, with every bombing of the civil object. It’s extremely painful for me. I really hope it will stop”