According to him, the case concerns two citizens of Ukraine.
“One of them was not allowed to board the flight, the other said he would not fly without him,” he explained.
As a result, the airline did not allow the two to board the Krakow-Thessaloniki flight. Usik and his colleague lost their passenger status, but did not want to leave the boarding area, a border service official said.
“This caused a delay in the departure of the plane. They did not respond to the request of the airline employees to leave this area, so, according to procedure, border guards from the special response group were called in,” he said.
Mikhalovsky added that one of the Ukrainians was handcuffed.
“But it was a preventive measure, just taking him to the office, where they immediately took him out. The men did not resist, but were in a state of excitement,” the representative of Poland commented.
Natalya Wince, a spokeswoman for Krakow’s Balice Airport, told Ukrinform that after the incident, the Ukrainian boxer and his companion left the airport and never returned.
Context
Usik is the world heavyweight boxing champion. According to WBA, WBC, WBO, he is an ambassador for the United24 platform, which raises funds to help the Ukrainian army and civilians, as well as to rebuild cities.
On the evening of September 17, Ukrainian fighter and People’s Deputy from the Servant of the People Zhan Belenyuk reported that Usyk was detained at Krakow airportIt is still unknown under what circumstances this happened, but the boxer’s wife, Ekaterina Usik, said that everything was fine with him.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was later informed that the consul general had visited Usik and the diplomat was ordered to express protest and indignation at this attitude towards the Ukrainian athlete. At midnight, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky announced that Usik had already been released.
Polish promoter Andrzej Wasilewski wrote in X that the airport services did not want to let one of the athlete’s team members on the plane. Usyk said that he would not fly without his partner either and was detained. According to Przegląd Sportowy Onet, this information was provided to Vasilevsky by Usyk’s promoter Alexander Krasyuk.
On the evening of September 18, Usyk posted on Instagram Stories that he called the events in Krakow a misunderstanding and said that “everything is fine now.”
