Ukraines Ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, has urged Australian Open officials to ban Novak Djokovic’s father from attending the tournament. This is after the Serbs father was seen posing with fans holding Russian flags with Vladimir Putins face.
“He should be stripped of his accreditation,” said Myroshnychenko.
The Ambassador also called on Djokovic to make clarifications about his actions, to apologize, and to make his stand on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine clear.
“He should apologize for what has happened, and condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” he added.
The video was shared on YouTube on a pro-Russia channel. It was captioned, “Novak Djokovic’s father makes bold political statement.”
Alex Dolgopolov, a former tennis player from Ukraine, also weight in. He called Djokovics actions, absolutely disgusting.
Peter Dutton, Australias conservative opposition leader, commented saying: The Russian onslaught continues and frankly everybody of goodwill should be trying to deter, not encourage President Putin.”
The Russian Embassy in Australia hit back at the Ukrainian Ambassadors plea saying: “another example of unacceptable politicization of sports”.
The owner of the YouTube channel who posted the video urged Russian supporters to descend on Melbourne Park to support Novak Djokovic.
“This is about honor and dignity now. This is an attack on honor and dignity. This has got nothing to do with the war,” he said in a video.
