Shakhtar Donetsk coach ‘killed by fragment of a Russian shell,’ says club’s CEO

Sergey Palkin, the CEO of Ukrainian giants Shakhtar Donetsk says a youth coach at the club has been killed by a fragment of a Russian shell and has called on the football community in Russia to speak out against the war.

In an emotional Facebook post, Palkin confirmed that a club employee was killed on Wednesday and added: ‘Russia, you are killing Ukrainians. Stop this madness!’

The CEO did not name the employee, who he described as a ‘kid’s coach’ but did implore anyone of influence in Russian football to help stop the horrific invasion of Ukraine.

Palkin wrote: ‘I would like to address the owners, management and football players of Russian football clubs. Russia has carried out a terrible and treacherous military attack on Ukraine. A country in which each of you has visited and where you have always been welcomed. A country in which you have relatives, friends, acquaintances. The country where some of you were even born. And this country and its people are today being destroyed by the Russian army with all kinds of weapons: “beeches”, “graduates”, artillery, aviation, tanks.

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‘You are becoming an outcast. Russia, from a nation that has made tremendous efforts to defeat Nazism, is turning into a nation of terrorists, a nation of silent cowards. The whole world is watching you today. And the world expects you to act that will stop the madness. But you’re afraid, you’re scared. In sports, fear is a feeling that reduces the probability of victory to zero.

‘Your fear of going against the war in Ukraine is destroyed cities, your fear is thousands and thousands of deaths among civilians, your fear is dead children and maimed fates of millions. Your fear of going against the bloody regime is your greatest defeat.

‘Although…