A UEFA CHAMPIONS League team has traded football kits for military uniforms according to a photo popularised on social media.
An Irish Facebook page claims that Dynamo Kyiv, one of Ukraine’s most successful club teams stopped playing to fight the Russian forces.
The page, called My Inishowen, posted that “football practice is off the schedule for FC Dynamo Kyiv” as the club is showing “love for their country on the battlefield”.
A photo of armed men in combat fatigues in what appears to be a sitting room accompanies the text which wished the professional players: “Good fortune to you, soldiers!”
Popular Irish sports page Landsdowne Road posted a similar claim, writing “if true, this is utterly insane but either war absolutely necessary” to the 37,000 Facebook users who like account.
The conflict has seen many Ukranians forgo their usual careers to join the military effort to defend their country. But is that the story that this picture tells about Dynamo Kyiv’s players?
A photo shows Dynamo Kyiv players joining the military conflict in Ukraine.
The exact same wording as the claim on My Inishowen was found in a tweet from Estonian MEP Riho Terras.
The verified account posted the same photo on 26 February 2022 alongside the caption:
“Looks like football practice is off the schedule for FC Dynamo Kyiv for some time. A football club with almost a 100 years of history is showing their camaraderie and love for their country on the battlefield. Good fortune to you, soldiers!”
Looks like football practice is off the schedule for FC Dynamo Kyiv for some time. A football club with almost a 100 years of history is showing their camaraderie and love for their country on the battlefield. Good fortune to you, soldiers! @DynamoKyiv pic.twitter.com/UCfyNbnA8b
— Riho Terras (@RihoTerras) February 26, 2022
The post was liked over 11,000 times.
Another verified account tweeted the same photo that day adding credibility to the claim, as it belonged to a journalist from the Wall Street Journal
Bojan Pancevski tweeted the photo with the caption “The Dynamo Kyiv football club is now fighting Russia” from his account, which lists his occupation as the Germany Correspondent for the WSJ.
However, Pancevski appears to correct the original description by posting “the Dynamo FC supporters” underneath in another tweet timestamped five minutes after the first one.
The Dynamo Kyiv football club is now fighting Russia: https://t.co/AawALI81tb
— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) February 26, 2022
A reverse Google search of the image finds it appearing two days beforehand on 24 February on the Instagram account Gonor.Group.
Gonor is the name of a right-wing nationalist group in Ukraine who were involved in demonstrations earlier this year and reportedly in 2019 protests in Hong Kong.
The caption reads: “Good night everyone. Death to the invaders! Glory to the Nation!!”
There is no reference to Dynamo Kyiv or its players.
However, there are multiple reports of a long-standing history between fans of the clubs and right-wing organisations in Ukraine.
The European Parliament heard in 2019 that the Ukrainian right-wing military group C14 “recruited members from among football fans of Dynamo Kyiv”.
Bellingcat tracked Ukrainian white supremacists and their attack on a person of colour at a Dynamo Kyiv vs Chelsea match in October 2015.
Dynamo Kyiv’s ‘Ultras’ – fanatical fans with a political leaning – have also been linked to the Azov Battalion, a controversial nationalist group described as ‘neo-Nazis’.
The Azov Battalion features repeatedly in pro-Russian messaging around the war, particularly when justifying the invasion as a “denazification” exercise.
While the links to military groups and its fans have been documented, Dynamo Kyiv told Reuters that none of their players were identified in the photo.
According to a fixtures calendar, the club played a friendly against Latvian team FK RFS in the days leading up to the photo.
Dynamo Kyiv are currently on a charity tour of Europe in an attempt to raise funds for displaced Ukrainians.
This week, players took the field in a friendly against Legia Warsaw, beating the Polish side 3-1.
It is unlikely they would be able to continue to play internationally while also being on the battlefield as the post claims.
It has been claimed that a photo shows Dynamo Kyiv players in military uniforms preparing to fight Russian troops in Ukraine.
However, the club has said that none of its players appear in the photo.
While Dynamo Kyiv’s players have been active raising funds and visiting wounded soldiers in hospital, this is not a photo of the team armed and ready to join the war.
We therefore rate the claim: FALSE.
As per our verdict guide, this means: the claim is inaccurate.
The Journal’s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. You can read it here. For information on how FactCheck works, what the verdicts mean, and how you can take part, check out our Reader’s Guide here. You can read about the team of editors and reporters who work on the factchecks here.
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