A messy situation has developed between Ottawa's Nikita Zaitsev and his ex-wife. Zaitsev was recently granted a personal leave of absence from the Senators so he could travel to Russia and finalize his divorce and an ongoing custody battle. Earlier Friday, a video emerged from a Russian news agency with the following statement translated from Russian: "Hockey player Nikita Zaitsev attacked his ex-wife. I did not want to pay child support, so I flew to Moscow from Canada and abducted my own children. Where they are now is not clear, the woman went to the police. Zaitsev himself quickly flew back to Canada."
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Following that, Zaitsev's agent issued a statement denying reports that the defenseman kidnapped his children and hopped a flight to Canada. Dan Milstein said the reports are inaccurate, the kids are with Zaitsev's parents in Russia and his ex-wife knows where the children are. He added law enforcement considers the case to be closed.
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After that, a further development from Zaitsev's ex-wife. After being contacted by a reporter from the Ottawa Sun, she made a statement in English saying she has not seen nor heard from her two children in 12 days, adding Zaitsev is skipping out on child support. She said she had allowed the children to spend time with her in-laws on weekends, but never agreed to have them live there permanently. She also backups the earlier video from the Russian news agency, saying her children were grabbed from her arms screaming. Check it out:
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So many media outlets were asking about the situation that the Ottawa Senators released their own statement saying they will not comment on private matters, adding they've spoken to Zaitsev and have been assured the children are safe.
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We are hopeful for all parties involved that this gets resolved safely and quickly.
