The situation with the departure of Ukrainian athletes abroad has become a topic of discussion in the CS:GO community on the eve of the upcoming major in Paris because it once again raises the question of the role of players abroad. The well-known Ukrainian commentator and streamer Arseniy ceh9 Trinozhenko drew attention to the topic. He said:

There was no official handshake between Monte and FORZE. And they explained it by the fact that UKOIL sponsors the war. However, I would urge all Ukrainian teams to look at this issue more widely. And officially, under the cameras, do not participate in handshakes with all Russian pro-players because Russian players, who at the time did not publicly speak out against the war and Putin: represent Russia as a state. And even if you shake the hand of m0NESY or Cloud9, you demonstrate that a Ukrainian athlete will shake hands with a Russian athlete. Everyone has personal relationships, but not on camera. At the tournament, controlling these moments is necessary and not engaging in handshakes with people who did not refuse to represent Russia is necessary.

Let us remind you that the match between Monte and Forze took place on BLAST.tv Major Paris: European RMR B 2023. In this confrontation, the team from Ukraine easily won a victory over the opponent with a score of 2:0.

As is customary, after the match, the teams shake each other's hands, thank them for the match, and wish their opponents luck in the next games. But the Monte team refused this action, and the organization also made a statement on the Telegram channel:

Tg-channels started pushing the news that we refused to give fist bumps after the end of the game.
Yes, that's true. Question: is it necessary?

But why does the Ukrainian community care so much about this issue?

On February 24, 2022, on the day of the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia on Ukraine's territory, the Ukraine government announced a general mobilization to counter aggression by the Russian Federation.

A law was also issued restricting the movement of male citizens between the ages of 18 and 65 within the country's territory.

Having these data in hand, and to add to it all the many sufferings and torments Russia has brought to Ukraine. For the human losses suffered by the country, the bombed-out cities, and the attempt to destroy the future of Ukrainians. It is easy to say that Ukrainians should limit their contact with Russians as much as possible in any sphere of their activities.

Also, it should be mentioned that many citizens of the Russian Federation publicly spoke out against the war and Putin's dictatorial regime. For example, the Team Spirit organization spoke out against the war from the beginning of the invasion and moved all its members to Serbia.

Ukrainian athletes can travel abroad to international competitions despite the law on closing borders.

What is the role of Ukrainian athletes in international tournaments?

Of course, the first and most important thing is the final representation of your family on the international stage. And also remind the whole world, through any mass media, that the war is NOT OVER, and Russia continues to destroy the neighboring state in the center of Europe!

But what do we see on the screens of our phones or computers sitting in a bomb shelter when Russian missiles fly over us?

And we see a rather unpleasant picture of how our players calmly shake hands with the Cloud9 team, the ForZe team, Aurora, and so on.

Conclusion

For Ukraine to win on the battlefield, the country needs the consolidation of society and world support. And what kind of support can we talk about when Ukrainian players calmly give balls and take pictures with players from the Russian Federation?

Since the state provides such an opportunity for athletes to leave, it imposes obligations on them to represent Ukraine on the world stage. So they are mini-diplomats right on the Twitch stream.

Pro-players are obliged to continue talking about the war and cover it. Otherwise, why does Ukraine have such a representative of a country that has close contact with the country of the aggressor?