Sergei Palkin: "Thanking Barcelona's Russian fans is an impossible and immoral act"

Shakhtar CEO Serhiy Palkin has commented on the scandalous video of the Barcelona players' appeal.

"The Ukrainian football club Shakhtar expresses its indignation at the distributed video address of Barcelona players Alejandro Balde and Sergi Roberto with words of gratitude to football fans from Russia.

For the second year there has been a bloody military invasion of Ukraine by the Russian federation which is unjustifiable. Thousands of Ukrainians have become victims of this war, dozens of cities have been destroyed, millions of people have lost their homes and become refugees. The whole world has united in support of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people and condemned the invasion. Every day we do everything to bring Ukraine's victory closer and to defend the European values of freedom and democracy. The Polish people have been particularly helpful to Ukraine: in particular, the captain of the Polish national team and Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski has repeatedly shown his solidarity with Ukrainians.

And at this time we see the players of one of the leading clubs in the world, Barcelona, expressing their gratitude and support. We think this is an impossible and simply immoral thing to do. We must remember that no victory on the pitch is worth the life of a child, no money earned on the football market is worth ruining cities and ruining people's lives.

We hope that FC Barcelona are aware that their support for a country like Russia is totally unacceptable at the moment. We expect the club to acknowledge its mistake and avoid such situations in the future," Palkin said.