"They said that it is right that we are being bombed": Russian hockey players provoke fight with Ukrainians at Continental Cup match

This is reported by Ukraine's Hockey Federation. 

The Russians provoked the first fight at the beginning of the third period, and after that they began to abuse the Ukrainians from Barcelona, namely Artem Ponomarenko, Stanislav Didkovskii, and his father and coach Danylo Didkovskii.

There were 12 Russian players in the application of the Istanbul Buz Adam for the Hockey Continental Cup.

"I spoke with the Ukrainian legionnaire from Istanbul (Stanislav Teplytskyi - Ed.) and he is not happy there: the Russians shut his mouth, saying, shut up, young man. Well, now, in the Eurocup, I heard with my own ears the direct text of checkmates and threats from the Russian hockey player to Didkovskii Sr. in the style: "I will kill you and your family." And when one of the Russians scored for us, he drove up to the Barca bench and tried to humiliate us: "Hey, you're from Ukraine, that's what you need. It is right that we are being bombed," Ukrainian hockey player of Barcelona, Artem Ponomarenko, said. 

Ukrainian hockey players were angered by such actions of the Russians.

"The specific word 'bombs' may not have been uttered, I don't remember exactly, but the intonation and accents were telling. We all understood, and it made me very angry. Why is it necessary to provoke an opponent with the topic of war? I had to answer for myself, so in the end I volunteered to go on the ice and asked my partners to support me to stand "for Ukraine" against the Russian horde. It turned out to be a "wall-to-wall" scramble, but I managed to hit the target well three times - the lips of the player of the Turkish team were definitely chapped," Ponomarenko said. 

At the last minute of the meeting, another fight took place. Chief referee Philip Metzinger was forced to issue a total of 124 minutes of penalties, 91 of which were received by the Buz Adam hockey players.

"Russian aggression against Ukrainians is not limited to a military skirmish on the battlefield in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv or Kherson regions. It is disgusting wherever the enemy breathes, which provokes and organizes local outbreaks of aggression even where no one expects it - on sports grounds in international matches. This time, Russian hockey players showed all their rotten insides during the opening round of the second most important European club tournament - the Continental Cup," Ukraine's Hockey Federation commented on the fight.