Everton left-back Vitaliy Mykolenko sparked a war of words on Tuesday via an Instagram post aimed at Russia captain Artem Dzyuba.
The post came following Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine, which has led to an overwhelming amount of support for Ukraine.
FIFA and UEFA have suspended the Russian national team from participating in all competitions after many countries, including England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland, refused to compete against the country’s national side.
Read: Sweden urge FIFA to cancel Russia World Cup Qualifiers in powerful statement
Last Saturday’s Premier League clash between Everton and Manchester City at Goodison Park also saw Mykolenko embrace fellow Ukrainian Oleksandr Zinchenko during the pre-match warm-up, as the invasion of their home country continued.
Vitaliy Mykolenko fires condemning post at Artem Dzyuba
The ongoing conflict in his home country appears to have led Mykolenko to say some rather unsavoury things about the Russian national team captain Dzyuba, as he sent him a fiery post on Tuesday surrounding the conflict.
The translation of the post read as follows:
“While you b**** are silent, you and your s***** football players are killing peaceful people in Ukraine. You will be locked in your dungeon for the rest of your life and, most importantly, the lives of your children. And I’m sincerely glad about it. You will never be forgiven, roosters.”
‘Roosters’ may not be the most accurate of translations at the end, as is pointed out by several of the comments below in the Reddit chat. However, it doesn’t take too much imagination to understand what Mykolenko’s trying to say.
Why is Vitaliy Mykolenko lashing out at Artem Dzyuba?
Artem Dzyuba’s choice to remain silent on the tragic ongoing events has angered Mykolenko.
The Russian captain is actually half Ukrainian on his father’s side. As such, one would imagine that would leave him with some level of sympathy for the current crisis that Russia is inflicting on its western neighbours.
Yet, if we cast our minds back to the World Cup in Russia back in 2018, the quarter-final that saw Croatia knock Russia out of the competition on their own turf was notable for more reasons than one.
RT Sport released a video of Croatia’s Domagoj Vida saying “glory to Ukraine” following the win, which Dzyuba didn’t like.
“I had double feelings. On the one hand, the Croatians impressed me with their perseverance. Everyone thought that England would brush them aside, but they went further,” Dzyuba told the website of club team Zenit St. Petersburg.
“But because of Vida and Vukojevic… their performance [in the video] made us furious on the bus. The first reaction was – I wanted to get off and drive Vida into the ground.”
Featured Image Credit: Getty