Neurosurgeon and Ukrainian football referee Dmytro Kubryak, who defended Azovstal and spent 5 months in Russian captivity, appealed to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He expressed outrage that to hold elections in the Ukrainian Association of Football, criminal cases were opened against members of the UAF Executive Committee, and pressure was exerted. Kubryak said this on his Facebook page.
"Explain to me why, amid the war, when our unbreakable country is trying by all means to resist Russian aggression when our compatriots are dying every day, the power bodies are intimidating the heads of regional branches of the Ukrainian Association of Football? On whose instructions criminal cases were opened against all members of the UAF Executive Committee? Who is killing the independence of Ukrainian football by sending down shameful instructions from above on how to hold a fake congress and whom to elect as a football "Lukashenko"?", - Kubryak wrote.
He appealed to President Zelenskyy.
"Mr. President, people like me survived and returned to ensure that Ukraine wins this war and that all described above, which is possible only in the territory of lawlessness, like the Russian Federation, never occurs in our country. I am sure you have no arguments to deny this. Therefore, I urge you to defend our state not only from the external enemy but also from those who are destroying it from the inside", - Kubryak urged.
Initially, the UAF elections were supposed to be held on December 20. But this attempt, according to the president of the national team of journalists of Ukraine Olha Vytak, failed. Therefore, now a new instruction concerning elections has been issued "from above". Allegedly, it is about a "virtual executive committee" and collection of signatures. For this purpose, criminal proceedings were opened against all members of the Executive Committee. Reportedly, persons from the Office of the President of Ukraine are involved in this pressure.