Walking the streets of the Ukrainian capital, the force of the devastation hit her. “This was a really, really tough trip for me mentally,” she says. “To see the huge difference from when I was there last time. It’s very sad to see what’s happened to Ukraine.”

The 28-year-old is an ambassador for UNITED24, an organisation set up by Zelensky with the aim of raising funds to aid Ukraine. Svitolina is helping to fundraise the restoration of apartment blocks in the Kyiv region to help displaced families return home. Through her own foundation, she is also getting mental health support for young Ukrainian tennis players affected by the war.

‘We are making every effort to avoid a lost generation’

Trying to continue supporting young athletes has been Olha Saladukha’s aim too. Saladukha, 39, won triple jump Olympic bronze at London 2012, is a former world champion, and has since become a member of parliament in Zelensky’s Servant of the People party.

“The situation is bad. The sports infrastructure has been damaged massively, which makes it completely impossible for younger athletes as well as adults to train,” Saladukha tells Telegraph Sport from Kyiv, speaking through a translator. “We are making every effort to try to avoid the lost generation, doing as much as possible to bring people back in and continue to train those still in Ukraine to develop as athletes.”

When war is raging, grass-roots or elite sport are far from the top priority, particularly when the United Nations reports that more than 7,000 civilian deaths in Ukraine so far. 

Zelensky said recently that 228 athletes and sports coaches have been killed in the war. A website with the title “Sport Angels” commemorates some of those lost to the conflict, including 14-year-old weightlifter Alina Peregudova, gymnast Kateryna Diachenko, 11, and former captain of the Ukrainian water polo team Yevhen Obedinsky, 39.

‘Sport gives children a glimpse of the future’

Saladukha insists that, amid the misery of war, sport can provide hope. It is why she began a charity last October that, united with the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation (which opposes the war), created monthly stipends for young Ukrainian athletes aged 18 to 25 who have left the country. The aim is to help them return and continue training properly. She also hosted an athletics competition last month for younger teens, with 250 of the country’s most talented children travelling to Kyiv to take part.

“These kids, they’ve lost their homes and all they see is war, but they’re grateful for competition and have asked for more,” she says. “Some children were crying, because their coaches were at the warfront, some had to spend a lot of time in bomb shelters. But sport gives them the possibility to aspire to something. It gives them a glimpse of the future. They need it.”

A future without war is hard to imagine at this stage, but Svitolina says she is already planning for it. She ran a tennis clinic in Kyiv with 350 children during her visit and has big goals to set up a sports centre in the capital for children in Ukraine when the war is over. “I know it’s a long-term goal, but I really dream about this centre.”

In the past year, both the war and the birth of her first child – with husband and fellow tennis player Gael Monfils – sidelined Svitolina from the WTA Tour, but she hopes to be back by April. She says using her platform to help her country is “motivating” her comeback.  

At the outbreak of war she was a vocal opponent to Russian and Belarusian athletes competing in tennis and, like Saladukha, vehemently opposes IOC president Thomas Bach’s current stance, which could see them allowed to compete at the Paris Olympics next summer.

“Russian soldiers are destroying our country, it’s a huge trigger when you’re stepping on the court and competing against the person who is representing that country,” Svitolina says, adding that pro-Putin support at the Australian Open last month showed the harm Russian and Belarusian participation can cause. “It was not really surprising to see what happened in Australia, but it’s such a bad image for sport what happened with the flags, with the face of Putin. It’s a disaster.”

Saladukha is adamant too: “We’ve seen murder, rape, everything. It’s impossible for Ukrainian athletes to shake hands with Russian or Belarusian counterparts. Until the war is over there is no scenario in which it will be acceptable for them to compete at the Olympics.”

Elina Svitolina is an ambassador for UNITED24, and is raising funds to rebuild homes in Ukraine: https://donorbox.org/svitolina