Zenit Dropped Ukrainian Defender Yaroslav Rakitskiy After Speaking Out Against Ongoing Russian Invasion

Parts of the country have been bombed and while Russian tanks and troops have crossed the borders.

Rakitskiy posted an image of the Ukrainian to his Instagram page and captioned it: "I'm Ukrainian!" in solidarity with his nation.

The 32-year-old has 54 caps for his country, scoring four times while representing them at Euro 2012 and Euro 2016 before retiring in 2019.

Gazprom are owned by the Russian government and Putin supports Zenit, with the company paying over £33 million a year to sponsor the Champions League.

Rakitskiy played in last week's 3-2 defeat to Betis but remained on the bench for last night's 0-0 draw in Spain, which saw Zenit eliminated from the competition.

Elsewhere, Atalanta and Ukraine midfielder Ruslan Malinovskyi used last night's action to speak out and he unveiled a 'No war' t-shirt after scoring against Olympiacos.

Throughout the day, other Ukraine nationals expressed their disgust at the situation.

The post quickly disappeared and it was alleged that Zinchenko had no idea it was deleted, with Instagram looking into the incident.

Zinchenko was seen attending protests in Manchester against the invasion later on Thursday evening.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said 137 people had been killed and 316 have been wounded in the invasion so far.