Yuri Kobzar19:35, 03.04.25

They were remembered during a general minute of silence at the beginning of the organization’s congress.

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has publicly honored the memory of two occupiers who were eliminated in Ukraine and who were previously associated with football. The relevant information is available on the organization’s website .

Thus, at the beginning of the UEFA Congress in Belgrade, the organization’s president, Aleksander Čeferin (a citizen of Slovenia), declared a minute of silence for the representatives of European football who had passed away since the previous Congress a year ago.

After that, as the broadcast recording shows, a list of football players, coaches, football managers, referees, and professional journalists from all over Europe who had died during the year was broadcast. In particular, Russians. 

And among those whose memory they decided to honor were former Russian football players Alexei Bugayev and Zaur Kaziev. Both came as part of the Russian occupation army to kill Ukrainians, but were denazified by the defenders of Ukraine.

Alexey Bugaev was a pupil of Moscow “Torpedo”, also played for “Lokomotiv”, “Tom” and “Krasnodar”. In 2003-2005 he played seven matches for the Russian national team, two of them – at the 2004 European Championship. He ended his career in 2010 at the age of 29.

As reported by Russian media , in September 2024, 43-year-old Bugaev was sentenced to 9 years in prison for drug possession. In order not to serve his sentence, he took advantage of Russia’s official state program, under which almost any criminal can be released from prison if he signs a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry and goes to kill Ukrainians. In December, it became known that Bugaev had been eliminated in Ukraine. 

Zaur Kaziev began his career at the Mozdok club, and also played for Spartak Vladikavkaz, the Latvian club Dinaburg, Sheksna Cherepovets, and other Russian clubs. In 2014–2016, he played for the TSK-Tavria club, created by the Russians in occupied Crimea. He ended his career in 2020. ​

In December 2024, Russian media  reported the death of Zaur Kaziev during hostilities in eastern Ukraine. However, there is no information in the public domain about how he ended up at the front.

It is worth adding that the UEFA congress also honored the memory of Ukrainian football players who died in the last year. Moreover, immediately after the Ukrainians were listed, a text remark appeared in the broadcast:

UEFA and its member associations express their sincere condolences to the UAF and all those in Ukraine who have lost loved ones.

And then the broadcast continued with a list of European football players and football officials who had died in the past year.

Ukrainian football players who died during the war

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a number of Ukrainian football players have given their lives defending their homeland. 

This sad list includes, in particular, Ruslan Kurdas (died in battles near Bakhmut in January 2023),  Vyacheslav Savytskyi (died in June 2023 near the village of Bilogorivka in the Luhansk region),  Vitaliy Zaliznyak (died in December 2023 near the settlement of Zaliznychne),  Andriy Shchepotiev (died in December 2024 in the Kharkiv region) and others.

(C)UNIAN 2025