On Friday last week, as he was driving to central London for this interview, Oleksandr Zinchenko spent much of his journey on the phone to Ukraine. The Arsenal defender was speaking to those affected by the catastrophic destruction of the Kakhovka dam, in the southern part of the country, and hearing of the horrors that have been caused by the subsequent flooding.

A few minutes after those conversations ended, as he took his seat in front of a small group of journalists, those images were at the forefront of Zinchenko’s mind. “The stories I heard,” he says. “Honestly, guys. I can’t even explain it.”

Volunteers in the area had told Zinchenko of entire buildings being swept away, of hundreds of animals drowning in their cages at a zoo and of thousands of people fighting for their lives. “I heard about one woman, holding two little babies that were born just a few months ago,” says Zinchenko, 26, his voice thick with grief. “She was on the roof with them, holding onto the last stone and trying to survive. Unfortunately, she didn’t, with the kids.”

These are the realities of war, and Zinchenko does not want to hide from them. He does not want the rest of us to hide from them, either. The footballer returned to Ukraine a few weeks ago — the first time he was able to do so in two years — and he knows how important it is that the wider world continues to look at what is happening in his country.

“I know some people have got fatigue of this war,” he says. “But my only message is that we have to stick together. If you look at the map, unfortunately Ukraine has got these neighbours. The United Kingdom is far away. But if it was not Ukraine, it would be another country, right? Today it is Ukraine, but if we are not going to stop them, then it could be your country next. The world needs to be united.”

Since Russia’s invasion in early 2022, Zinchenko has lived with an anger that will not subside. To return home, and to see the devastation in person, has amplified those emotions. For much of this interview, he was holding back tears.

“Seeing this situation from your phone, laptop, calls, messages… I was already in shock,” he says. “But we are human beings and we are starting to get used to it. Fortunately or unfortunately, I don’t know which. But it is a completely different story when you see these destroyed buildings with your own eyes, rather than on your phone.

“I can’t say it was not scary but, at the time, you are thinking: ‘Should I be scared? Or just accept that it is what it is, and just try to do something good to help people?’

“People ask me: ‘Why do you do all this? You have a family to look after.’ But I have a daughter who is nearly two years old and I hope I will have another baby soon (his wife, Vlada, is pregnant).

“I just want to do something good. When they grow up, they will ask me: ‘Daddy, when this war was in our country, what did you do? How much did you help people?’ I want to look in their eyes and I want to say: ‘Me and your mum, we were trying to do our best.’”

In the days following the invasion, Zinchenko’s instinctive urge was to return home and join the fight. He has said that, were it not for his young family in England, he would have gone. But he has since accepted that he can do more to assist the cause from afar, using his profile to spread awareness and raise funds.

“Since the invasion, my head was lost,” says the 26-year-old. “But me and my family were talking a lot about this and we have to keep going. I can help from here much more, rather than if I was there at the moment. But, I promise, I really want to be there, even now. This is my homeland. For sure, after football, I am going to live in Ukraine.”

On his recent return home, Zinchenko met with Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukraine president, to discuss Game4Ukraine, a celebrity charity match that will take place at Stamford Bridge in August. Zinchenko and Andriy Shevchenko, the former Ukraine striker, will feature in the match as they look to raise money for the United24 initiative.

The game takes place a day before the Community Shield, in which Arsenal will face Manchester City, but Zinchenko has been granted permission to play for a limited time.

The funds raised from the event will be used to rebuild a Ukrainian school that has been almost entirely destroyed by missiles in Chernihiv Oblast. The area was occupied by Russian troops for 33 days and, on his visit, Zinchenko learned more of the suffering that has taken place there.

“We have seen the damage to the school,” says Zinchenko. “There are 10 villages around this school and all the kids from these villages go there. I spoke to the kids who study there. These were real, true stories. Honestly, I was in shock. You cannot see it even in the movies. Kids cannot lie. They are just talking the real truth.”