‘No war!’ Russian footballer Fedor Smolov joins sports stars condemning invasion of Ukraine

Russian sports stars including international footballers and Olympians have used social media to publicly condemn the country’s invasion of Ukraine, potentially putting their safety at risk by speaking out against president Vladimir Putin.

Putin ordered the bombing of Ukrainian infrastructure targets overnight and moved convoys of Russian military vehicles and personnel into the country.

Dynamo Moscow and Russia striker Fedor Smolov, who is engaged to the teenage granddaughter of former Soviet president Boris Yeltsin, tweeted the phrase which spread far and wide on Russian social media platforms on Thursday, “No war!!!ððºð¦”, accompanied by a blacked out image.

The popular Russian volleyball player and double Olympic silver medallist Ekaterina Gamova posted: “We don’t need any war. Ordinary people are not to blame for anything but they are the ones who suffer first.” She added: “I will remember this day for the rest of my life, when I said ‘the war has begun’. I looked at my son and tears rolled down. Lord help me.”

Russia’s No1 chess player, Ian Nepomniachtchi, tweeted: “History has seen no lack of black Thursdays, but today is blacker than the others.” Another Russian chess star, the women’s world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, posted a blacked out image with the words: “Pain, fear, powerlessness from what is happening around me.”

Tennis player Andrey Rublev said on court after a victory in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships: “In these moments you realise that my match is not important. It’s not about my match, how it affects me. What’s happening is much more terrible. You realise how important it is to have peace in the world and to respect each other no matter what, to be united. We should take care of our