Istomin

"If you take every fallen soldier as a personal loss, then I think you wouldn't last very long," said Roman Istomin, the press officer.

"It's not about losses, but more about the awareness of the population," Istomin said.

In Poltava, the rush of eager volunteers at the beginning of the war has since given way to a campaign of mobilising the less enthusiastic, said Istomin, the military press officer.

Only once has Djokovic lost to a player ranked lower than Van Rijthoven at a Grand Slam - and it has been over five years since that happened, when he fell to the 117th-ranked Denis Istomin at the 2017 Australian Open.

On a cold evening last week, Roman Istomin and Olga Petrova stood in front of the White House at a protest organized by the local Ukrainian community.