Dynamo Moscow forward Fedor Smolov also posted a black square and a Ukrainian flag on his hugely popular Instagram account
Russia and Dynamo Moscow star Fedor Smolov has posted a message with the text “no war” on his Instagram account and added a black square instead of a photo, the flag of Ukraine and an emoji showing a broken heart in the message to his followers on more than 570,000.
The post comes amid mounting tensions between Russia and Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced an operation in Ukraine and Moscow revealed that airstrikes had been launched in the country.
Two-time Russian Premier League goal scorer Smolov’s post received more than 21,000 likes from fans within two hours.
The popular striker returned to Dynamo, which he played with between 2007 and 2015, in January.
Smolov had spent four seasons with rivals Lokomotiv Moscow after a productive three-year stint at Krasnodar.
The former Celta Vigo loanee has 45 caps for Russia and scored 16 goals for his country in more than ten years.
Now 32, Smolov has scored four goals for Russia at the Gazprom Arena in St. Petersburg. Petersburg, including one against Cyprus in the World Cup qualifier 2022 in November.
The happy hunting ground for the forward will host the Champions League final in May, although reports have suggested that organizers UEFA are considering changing venues for the match.
The European Football Administration’s body was initially said to be considering relocating the game to another country after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that a military operation would take place in Donbass.
UEFA has reportedly called for an extra meeting of its executive committee on Friday.
Russia and Smolov will host Poland in their first World Cup qualifier in March.
Should they succeed, Russia welcomes the winners of the agreement between Sweden and the Czech Republic to decide who will go to Qatar.
(RT.com)
Source: sn.dk