The persecution of people for their views and even for being someone's relatives is moving from political and social life to sports life.
On April 11, Viktor Leonenko, a well-known football player of the Dynamo Kyiv team, was fired from the Football 1/2/3 television channels, where he commented on football competitions.
The reason for the dismissal was an interview with Sport Arena, in which Leonenko stated that Russian athletes were not to blame for the war against Ukraine, and also questioned the need for sanctions against them in world sports organizations.
On April 14, 17-year-old football player Artur Uvarov was fired from the Dynamo youth team only because his father is an official in the Luhansk People's Republic.
Also, the Dynamo leadership stated that the team would not play a match with the Steaua team from Romania, because President Steaua called the Azov regiment Nazis.
Meanwhile, commentators on the Football 1/2/3 live television channels call Russian athletes "pig-dogs", "goat-faced" and other epithets from the dictionary of hate speech.