Football Italia
·24 March 2024
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·24 March 2024
Ruslan Malinovskyi surprised many by seemingly attacking his former Atalanta teammate Aleksei Miranchuk, accusing him on contributing to ‘Russian terrorism’, but what really happened?
On March 22nd, Atalanta shared a post on social media, celebrating Miranchuk’s goal for Russia in their 4-0 friendly win over Serbia the day prior. Malinovskyi seemingly responded, posting four photos from the ongoing war in Ukraine and saying: ‘A good contributor to Russian terrorism. Every day for two years’.
Un buon contribuente del terrorismo russo 🎩 Ogni giorno per due anni. pic.twitter.com/CZMyVNz6Gz — Ruslan Malinovskyi (@malinovskyi18) March 22, 2024
The Genoa midfielder’s account then added four further photos with the caption: ‘Doesn’t it remind you of anything? Maybe Kharkiv? Champions League? M?’, appearing to directly call out his former teammate. The pair were known to be close friends during their time together in Bergamo.
Non ti ricorda niente? Forse Kharkiv? Champions League? M? 🎩 pic.twitter.com/ITmgkrNI62 — Ruslan Malinovskyi (@malinovskyi18) March 22, 2024
Corriere di Bergamo via TMW reflected on the incident, revealing an unexpected twist: The Malinovskyi account is unofficial; the Genoa midfielder posted on his verified Instagram that ‘No Facebook, no X. Only Instagram’, directly calling out the posts seen on Twitter.
The Ukrainian midfielder’s wife Roksana responded to the Team Russia post on Instagram, writing in the comments: ‘Shame! Shame on you!’. She then tried to clarify that her response was aimed at the pro-Russian replies and not at Atalanta, who had left a top hat emoji on the post.
Atalanta have since deleted their initial tweet referencing Russia’s friendly win over Serbia, but not the Instagram comment, and the fake Malinovskyi account on Twitter is still up and running as of time of writing.