Ukrainian soccer players are feuding with one of the country's biggest legends over his refusal to condemn the Russian invasion
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Barnaby Lane
Apr 19, 2022, 17:59 IST
Anatoliy Tymoshchuk is currently a coach in Russia.Getty/Craig Williamson
Ukrainian soccer players are cutting ties with national team legend Anatoliy Tymoshchuk.
The 43-year-old is a coach in Russia and has remained silent about the invasion of his country.
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Ukrainian soccer star Andriy Yarmolenko has revealed he has cut ties with his former international teammate Anatoliy Tymoshchuk over the latter's refusal to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Tymoshchuk, who is Ukraine's most capped player ever, is currently the assistant manager of Russian team Zenit Saint Petersburg and has been widely condemned for not speaking out against the war in his country.
"Then he called me. I told him, 'You used to be a role model for me, now you're nothing.' Then he told me to fuck off and I told him the same and that's that."
Yarmolenko isn't the only current or former Ukraine player to hit out at Tymoshchuk.
Atalanta midfielder Ruslan Malinovskyi said last month that Tymoshchuk's silence means his achievements for Ukraine are no longer valid.
"I don't know about Tymoshchuk, you need to ask him," he tweeted, according to Sportsmail. "Hard to comment but it's weird [why he hasn't]. I think it's not right.
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"It's 100 per cent the case that he's no longer (or ever will be) a legend of Ukraine football. His previous achievements have been forgotten."
"You are from Ukraine. How can you be silent and continue to work there?" Levchenko wrote. "We played together for the same team, put on this shirt with pride, sang the anthem, won and lost. Are you just silent now? Tolik, how are you going to live with this?"
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