Ukrainian footballer Vitaliy Mykolenko decided to go hard on Russian players for keeping quiet while Russia is busy invading Ukraine since Thursday, February 24, 2022.
Since Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine over 6 days ago, most parts of the world have criticized Russia and Putin via different platforms. Those who did not criticize the country simply called for peace.
An established player like Cristiano Ronaldo has publicly called for peace amid the ongoing Ukraine and Russia crisis. But no player from Russia has public reacted against the war.
Hence, Vitaliy Mykolenko had to take to his Instagram story to call out Russia’s national team players over their lingering silence. In the Instagram post which he made in his native tongue, Mykolenko specifically called out the captain of Russia’s national team, Artem Dzyuba for not saying anything against the war.
Artem Dzyuba is a 33-year-old Russian professional footballer who players for the Russian club, Zenit Saint Petersburg and is married to Kristina Dzyuba.
In his rant against Dzyuba and the rest of Russia’s international footballers, Mykolenko who joined Everton from Dynamo Kyiv on January 1, 2022, for a transfer fee worth €23.50million called Russian players “b***h”.
The 22-year-old Everton left-back who is reportedly earning £58,000-a-week at Goodison Park went as far as wishing that Russian footballers and their children would be locked in a “s***hole” for watching the Russian army invade Ukraine without taking any action against it.
Vitaliy Mykolenko wrote: “Whilst you bh and your c**p footballers are silent, @artem.dzyuba, civilians are being killed in Ukraine. You and most importantly your children will be locked in your shole for your whole life. And I am sincerely happy about it. You will never be forgiven.”
Mykolenko’s social media rant against Russian players came amid the call for Everton to cut ties with Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.
Usmanov does not have a direct affiliation with Everton. However, his USM firm sponsors the club’s training ground, while his company, Megafon, is Everton Women’s main shirt sponsor.
The European Union has already frozen his assets and a United Kingdom member of parliament, MP Chris Bryant has been urging Everton to cut ties with Usmanov, while he wishes the UK should sanction the Russian billionaire.
The MP said on Tuesday: “Alisher Usmanov has already been sanctioned by the EU but not yet by the UK. But I suspect he will be pretty soon on a UK list and Everton should certainly be cutting ties with him already.”
