Before the debut of the Ukraine team in the European Championship, this Monday (17) against Romania, a piece of the stands at the Kharkiv stadium, destroyed by Russian bombings, was exposed in Munich, an act of which the Ukrainian football legend Andriy Shevchenko participated.
This temporary exhibition was opened in a central square in the Bavarian capital, which has been Kiev’s sister city since 1989, in front of several hundred fans of the Ukrainian national team.
Yellow and blue seats, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, destroyed and joined by a piece of the security ditch at the Sonyachny stadium in Kharkiv, in the northeast of the country, were exposed at the foot of the statue of Maximilian I, Duke of Bavaria.
A stand of Kharkiv’s Sonyachny Stadium was brought to the center of Munich. It was originally built by Ukraine for EURO 2012, but was destroyed by Russian troops in May 2022.
The UAF transported the stand across Europe to testify to the world that even football suffers under war pic.twitter.com/mkUhsMvgE4
— Ukrainian Association of Football (@uafukraine) June 17, 2024
This 5,000-seat sports venue was built in 2011 to serve as a training ground during the Euro 2021, but was bombed and was destroyed and unusable in May 2022.
The organizers wanted with this act, coinciding with the Euros, to focus on the destruction of sports facilities in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
“It means a lot to me to be here. This part of the stadium that was used to prepare for the Euro 2021 in Ukraine was completely destroyed by the Russians”, denounced Shevchenko.
“Today we start our tournament, with one team on the football field, but with millions of soldiers defending Ukraine. We are united”, added the Ballon d’Or winner in 2004.
The Ukrainian team will debut in the European Championship this Monday against Romania in Munich at 10 am (Brasília time).
The Ukrainian Federation recalled that 77 football stadiums were destroyed across the country since the start of the conflict and a total of more than 500 sports facilities, which forced many athletes to leave the country so they could prepare for the Paris Olympic Games. (from July 26th to August 11th).
This piece of the stand will be exposed on Friday in Düsseldorf (west), where Ukraine will play its second match against Slovakia, and then in Stuttgart on June 26, the scene of the third group stage match, against Belgium.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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