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Ukrainian football club Shakhtar Donetsk have called out Barcelona after two of their players sent a message to their Russian fans. Alejandro Balde and Sergi Roberto thanked fans in Russia via a video on Telegram, and it has not gone down well in Ukraine.
Barcelona were crowned champions of La Liga after their victory over Espanyol. The players took time to send messages to fans from various countries, and the duo were assigned to Russia.
Shakhtar Donetsk were not happy with Barcelona engaging with Russia. They released a statement on Tuesday which read:
"Ukrainian football club Shakhtar expresses its outrage concerning the posted video message from Barcelona players Alejandro Balde and Sergi Roberto with words of gratitude to football fans from Russia. We hope that FC Barcelona is aware that their support of a country such as Russia at this time is completely unacceptable. We expect the club to admit its mistake and avoid similar situations in the future."
It continued:
"It is a second year of a bloody and unjustifiable military invasion by the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainians became victims of this war, dozens of cities were destroyed, millions of people lost their homes and became refugees. The whole world united to support Ukraine and Ukrainian people and condemned the invasion. Every day we do everything to hasten the victory of Ukraine and to protect the European values of freedom and democracy."
Shakhtar added:
"And then we see the players of one of the world's top clubs, Barcelona, address the Russians, expressing their gratitude and support to them. We consider this an intolerable and simply immoral act. We must remember that no victory on the football field is worth the life of a child, no money earned in the football market is worth the destroyed cities and the wrecked lives of people."
Barcelona and La Liga are yet to comment on the statement.
Barcelona looking to add more firepower in the summer
Barcelona are aiming to add Lionel Messi, Ruben Neves, and other players to their squad this summer as they look to win the UEFA Champions League again.
The Catalan side are working actively behind the scenes to get the financial crisis under control before they start making moves in the transfer market.
Messi is their top target as per reports, with the Argentine's contract at PSG running down this summer. He is keen on a reunion but has offers from Al Hilal and Inter Miami too.
