A new kit for Ukraine’s football team, showing a map including Russian-annexed Crimea, has provoked anger in Moscow.
Ukraine unveiled its shirt for Euro 2020, emblazoned with the slogan “Glory to Ukraine!” and its borders including Crimea.
In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and considers it part of its territory. This is something the international community rejects.
A Russian MP considered it a “political incitement”.
In an articulation to the BBC, European football’s administering body Uefa said: “The shirt of the Ukrainian public group (and of any remaining groups) for Uefa Euro 2020 has been supported by Uefa, as per the pertinent gear guidelines.”
The front of the yellow shirt shows the shapes of Ukraine in white, including Crimea and the supportive of Russian dissenter controlled districts of Donetsk and Lugansk.
A trademark on the back peruses “Greatness to Ukraine!” – an energetic serenade utilized as a mobilizing cry by dissidents who constrained out a favorable to Moscow president, Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.
“WE ACCEPT THAT UKRAINE’S OUTLINE WILL INVIGORATE THE PLAYERS SINCE THEY WILL BATTLE FOR THE ENTIRETY OF UKRAINE,”
Mr. Pavelko said.
Yet, Russian unfamiliar service representative Maria Zakharova censured the units, saying the football crew had
“CONNECTED UKRAINE’S DOMAIN TO RUSSIA’S CRIMEA”, MAKING THE “HALLUCINATION OF THE UNTHINKABLE”.
She said the motto was nationalistic and repeated a Nazi revitalizing cry.
MP Dmitry Svishchev called the shirt “absolutely unseemly” and asked Uefa to make a move.
The competition, delayed because of Covid-19, will run from 11 June to 11 July across 11 host urban areas, including Russia’s Saint Petersburg, which has a quarter-last.
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