Ukraine conflict: Ukraine and Man City's Oleksandr Zinchenko on Russian invasion

Oleksandr Zinchenko has thanked the world for standing with Ukraine in an emotional interview with BBC Sport about the Russian invasion of his homeland.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine a little over a week ago, about a million Ukrainians have fled to safety while many others have stayed to fight.

The international community has almost universally backed Ukraine, in many cases sending weapons or imposing sanctions on Russia or Russians.

Zinchenko, who has family and friends in Ukraine, spoke to Gary Lineker about "his mission" to tell the world what is happening in Ukraine. You can watch the full interview on Football Focus from 12:00 GMT on Saturday on BBC One.

Here are some of the topics they discussed:

On discovering the news and crying in the car

Oleksandr Zinchenko captained Manchester City in their last FA Cup game

"At midnight UK time, my wife woke me up and she was crying," Zinchenko says of how he discovered the invasion had started.

"I was in shock. She showed me the videos, the pictures, what's going on now in Ukraine.

"Maybe the most closest feeling is when someone from your circle is dying. You know, this feeling like you feel so bad inside. But this is even much more worse."

Nine days into the war and he says the emotion keeps hitting him.

"I'm just crying. So already a week, I'm not counting, but even I can drive the car from the training ground, or it doesn't matter where, I can just cry from nothing," he said.

"It's everything in my head. Imagine the place where you was born, where you was growing up. And there is just empty ground."

• Zinchenko handed Man City captain's armband for FA Cup tie

On his pride in Ukrainians who won't give up

Many Ukrainians - including Zinchenko's friends - have stayed to fight Russia, with some who live abroad returning home for the war.

"I'll be honest, if not for my daughter, my family, I would be there," he said.

"I'm just born like that. I know the people from my country, the mentality of them, and all of them, they think exactly the same.

"I'm so proud to be Ukrainian, and I will be forever for the rest of my life. And when you're watching the people, how they fight for their lives.

"I know the people, the mentality of my people from my country, they prefer to die, and they will die. But they're not going to give [up]."

On the world standing by Ukraine

He said he had been overwhelmed by support he had received from football fans, from people in the street and also form seeing donations from the British public.

"I'm so grateful," he said. "I'm so grateful to all these people for the support I'm getting here. I didn't realise it's going to be like that in this way. So I would like to say all of them big thanks. I appreciate it.

"I'm getting a lot of messages from a lot of guys in Ukraine and they are asking me about the videos of support [from the UK].

"So people are watching TV, the people are still watching football, and they can see all these things, and I guess it helps a lot for them

"It's like, the people who are supporting Ukraine, they are trying to push them - don't give up. And I know my people they won't."

More to follow.