Will the Euromaidan play football with Berkut?

President of Kyiv Dynamo FC Ihor Surkis supported the idea suggested by former player of Ukrainian national team Yevhen Levchenko to hold a football match between the Euromaidan activists and Berkut policemen. This was reported on the TSN website. “I am ready to give the field for harmony and peace in our society. For warm, comfortable, and friendly atmosphere. We can play this ‘reconciliation match,’” Surkis said.

The idea is in turning the battle field from the armed into a peaceful one and in such a way solving at last the conflict between the sides. The protesters in Hrushevsky Street are ready, and while the ceasefire continues, they have started to train on the European Square. The task force police played the ball as well. But they are not going to play football with the activists.

In fact, the idea of holding a football match between the Euromaidan and Berkut is a brainchild of the Euromaidan activists. Stepan Kubiv, superintendent of the House of Trade Union (Batkivshchyna MP) told The Day about this in a phone conversation. “I confirm that the Maidan is peaceful. Strength should be tried not with bats, gunshots, or bloodshed, but with sports training,” he said.

However, MVS spokesman Serhii BURLAKOV told The Day that he does not have “any information on any proposals” concerning a football match. “At first, we need to cease the confrontation and violence, and then we can play football and other games,” he noted.

“If their approach is the same as Germans had to Kyiv Dynamo in 1941 – at first, play, then – beat, then it must be true [like Burlakov said. – Ed.]. At the moment, we are talking about a peaceful action. We have no aggression, and we never had,” Kubiv noted.