Ruslan Malinovskyi had a surreal Thursday, scoring two goals in a knockout game and revealing a “NO WAR IN UKRAINE” shirt on international television as his home country was being attacked by Russia.
Malinovskyi, a Ukrainian midfielder for Italian Serie A club Atalanta, displayed the shirt after the first of his two goals against Greek side Olympiacos in the Europa League quarterfinal in Athens. His two goals led the team to a 3-0 win.
The Russian invasion had ripple effects throughout the sports world on Thursday.
Events called off, boycotts begin
German Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel had perhaps the most outspoken reaction, saying he would not race in Russia this year. “My own opinion is I should not go, I will not go,” he said. “I think it’s wrong to race in that country. I’m sorry for the people, innocent people who are losing their lives, getting killed for stupid reasons under a very strange and mad leadership.”
F1 currently is scheduled to make a stop in Sochi, Russia, in September of this year. It said that it was “closely watching the very fluid developments” and would not otherwise comment.
— Several Brazilian soccer players said that they were trapped in Ukraine after Russia attacked the country. Marlon Santos posted a video with several Brazilian players from two teams describing the situation. “We are really desperate. We are going through chaos,” he wrote in Portuguese. “We have the support from our club. But the desperation is agonizing.”
Santos is a defender for Shakhtar Donetsk, one of the top teams in the Ukrainian league, which is suspended because of the war.
— Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv since 2014, said he would be joining the fighting on the front lines. “It’s already a bloody war,” he said Thursday. “I don’t have another choice. I have to do that. I would fight.”
Before his political career, Klitschko was one of the best boxers on the planet, winning several world heavyweight titles in the late 1990s and early 2000s. His brother Wladimir, also a world champion boxer, joined his brother in a video statement condemning the invasion. “The world is watching how reckless and deadly imperialism is, not just for Ukraine but the whole world,” Wladimir tweeted on Thursday morning. “Let history be a lesson to not be repeated.”
— Major sporting events scheduled to take place in Russia have been canceled or moved. May’s Champions League final will be moved out of St. Petersburg, Russia, with a new site yet to be determined. The ATP Challenger Tour canceled next week’s tennis tournament in Moscow, euphemistically citing “recent escalation of events between Russia and Ukraine.”
— The WNBA, which has many players in Europe in its offseason, said its players had left Ukraine. “The few WNBA players who were competing this offseason in Ukraine are no longer in the country,” a league spokesperson said. The two Prometey players, Joyner Holmes (Connecticut Sun) and Ariel Atkins (Washington Mystics) confirmed on their Instagram stories that they were not in the country.
The league said it was “in contact” with its players in Russia; there are at least 30 current and former WNBA players in the Russian league, including the Liberty’s Natasha Howard, who plays for Dynamo Kursk. Several major WNBA names, including league MVP Jonquel Jones, play for Ekaterinburg.
— The board of Schalke, a second-division German club and one of the largest clubs in Europe, immediately removed Gazprom as its jersey sponsor, blaming “recent developments.” Gazprom is Russia’s state owned oil and gas giant.
— Players on Czech team Slavia Prague took the field for a Europa Conference League game in “We Stand With Ukraine” shirts.
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