“Our hometowns would like to host EUROs, but now they are fighting for freedom”: Ukraine’s national football team addresses the world

Before the start of Euro-2024, the players of the National Team of Ukraine recorded a video appealing to help their country. The video featured 13 players, each of whose hometowns suffered from Russia's aggression or were temporarily occupied.

Rubryka informs about this.

The village of Velyka Novosilka in the Donetsk region, where Dynamo Kyiv player Mykola Shaparenko comes from, has been completely destroyed. There is no electricity or water, and instead of 6,000 residents, only 300 remain.

The stars of Real Madrid, Andrii Lunin, and Mykhailo Mudryk of London Chelsea are from Krasnohrad in the Kharkiv region, which the Russian army has been shelling since the beginning of the full-scale war. Zaporizhzhia, the hometown of the midfielder of the Belgian club Westerlo, Serhii Sydorchuk, has been suffering from massive shelling from Russian forces.

Players of Shakhtar Donetsk Oleksandr Zubkov and Mykola Matvienko, Maxym Talovyerov of the Austrian club LASK, and Anatolii Trubin of the Portuguese Benfica cannot come to their hometowns of Makiivka, Saky, and Donetsk because they are temporarily occupied. The hometown of the head coach of the Ukrainian national team, Serhii Rebrov, is Horlivka, Donetsk region. Rebrov has not been home for more than ten years.

"My parents are teachers, but my dad and I had a tradition of going to the stadium in Krasnohrad to play football after work. And then I asked my parents to take me to the football section," says Mykhailo Mudryk, midfielder of the London club Chelsea and the national team of Ukraine. "Since the beginning of the full-scale war, my city has been bombarded day and night. Despite this, my family remains in Krasnohrad, and my parents continue to build their lives there and always believe in the victory of Ukraine."

London Arsenal defender Oleksandr Zinchenko from Radomyshl, Zhytomyr region, Bournemouth central defender Ilya Zabarny from Kyiv, Genoa Italian midfielder Ruslan Malinovskyi from Zhytomyr, Spanish Girona striker and right winger Artem Dovbyk from Cherkasy, and Viktor Tsygankov from Vinnytsia also took part in the video and shared that Russia is trying to destroy their hometowns with constant shelling.

"We often hear that football is outside war, but this video proves the opposite. There is no Ukrainian football player, no Ukrainian city, stadium, playground, no child that has not been affected by war. We can only be here at Euro 2024 thanks to people who are fighting for our freedom. Many of our fans would like to be in the stands, but they are at the front. Our hometowns would like to host the Euro, but now they are fighting for freedom. We call on all participating countries of the European Championship to help Ukraine. Football is not only an outstanding sport, it is also a great strength. The strength of solidarity and unity, which our country so needs," says Andrii Shevchenko, winner of the Ballon d'Or and President of the Ukrainian Football Association.

Reference

The European Football Championship 2024 will start on June 14 and will be held in Germany until July 14. The national team of Ukraine got into Group E and will play the first match on June 17 in Munich against the national team of Romania.

We will remind you that this spring, the national football team of Ukraine proved its right to participate in the final part of the 2024 European Championship in a decisive qualifying match.

As reported, for reaching the final part of the Euro 2024 tournament, the national team of Ukraine earned solid prizes from UEFA after defeating Iceland in the finale of the play-off selection.