Glamorous Ukrainian tennis star swaps her racket for a ROCKET LAUNCHER as she joins war effort in her off-season

Tennis star Elina Svitolina traded her racket for a rocket launcher when she returned to Ukraine this off-season.

Svitolina, ranked 23rd in the world, has often used her platform as one of the country’s most successful players on tour to draw attention to the war in Ukraine.

She continued that trend Monday afternoon after sharing photos of herself with a rocket launcher and a machine gun in Kharkov, Ukraine.

On Instagram, the 30-year-old wrote: ‘Kharkiv has a special place in my heart.

‘The city that gave me the feeling of a real home when I started my professional career here at the age of 12. The city that continued to offer warmth and protection during the Great War.

‘If you ask me: where do I find the motivation to fight in sports arenas? This is my country, my people, my Kharkov and our heroes.’

The Ukrainian said her motivation comes from ‘my country, my Kharkov and our heroes’

Svitolina is currently number 23 in the world and previously reached the highest ranking: third

According to ImageSvitolina – who is married to fellow tennis star Gael Monfils – often spends her free time in Ukraine helping in the fight against Russia.

The Ukrainian will soon leave her home country to make her preparations for the upcoming Australian Open, which takes place in just over a month.

Svitolina has reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 in singles and No. 108 in doubles by the WTA and has won 17 WTA Tour singles titles.

She started playing tennis at the age of five in the Ukrainian city of Odesa, where she lived with her sporty parents and her older brother Yulian, who is nine years older than her.

Last year, Svitolina spoke to Mail Sport about how her family’s decision to move to Kharkiv to continue her coaching almost stalled due to her mother’s career as a professional bowls player.

She said: “At that time my mother was into professional bowling. My mother is very competitive and loves to perform.

“It was important that before we moved to Kharkiv… Mom had to finish with professional bowling, despite competing in the national championships.

‘She trained seven to eight hours a day. The first few months I was alone in Kharkov. I was in a rented apartment.

‘In the morning the coach picked me up. At the end of the day I was taken back to the apartment. And it was very important for me to get back before it got dark. I was a very shy child. Those were my first steps towards an independent life.’

The 30-year-old also showed a photo of her lying down operating a machine gun

Another photo showed the Ukrainian using a machine gun from a sheltered area

Svitolina has often used her platform to draw attention to the war in Ukraine

Elina agreed that the regime was hard work, saying, “Yes, yes. But I’m grateful for that time because I became more independent. On weekends I would walk around Kharkov alone to see what to show my mother when she came to visit.’

Describing her life as a 12-year-old single person, she said: ‘Kharkov is a very interesting city, completely different from Odessa. People aren’t that open, that’s what I remember most. That city suited me very well, I lived near a park.

She also talked about how her family struggled to make ends meet during her younger years before she became a poster girl for Ukrainian sports.

Elina said: ‘When we moved to Kharkov, it was a time of crisis. My father was in the real estate industry and that was very difficult. And when my mother arrived, we had a budget, not very big, that we could spend on food.”