Brazilian soccer star Edson Arantes do Nascimento ‘Pelé’ asked Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began at the end of February and has already left more than 4. deaths among the civilian population.
The message from the one who is considered by many to be the best soccer player in the world to the president of Russia was disclosed before to start the match in which the Ukrainian and Scottish teams are measured for one of the last quotas for the World Cup in Qatar 2022.
“In a few minutes, Ukraine is playing its first official match since the start of the conflict. I wrote this letter personally. I hope the violence ends and that we can build a better world together,” Pelé said in a message posted on Instagram along with a photo of the letter he addressed to the Russian president.
“I want to take advantage of the match today as an opportunity to place an order: stop this invasion. There are no arguments that justify this violence“, Pelé asked Putin in the letter.
In the letter, ‘the King’ of soccer indicated that the difficult task of getting a place to play the World Cup in Qatar becomes “almost impossible” when there are so many lives at stake and pointed out that the conflict that exists after the invasion of Ukraine is “perverse, unjustifiable and leaves nothing but pain, fear , terror and anguish”.
“When we met in the past and exchanged a big smile, accompanied by a long handshake, it was unimaginable that we could be as divided one day as we are today“ , assured Pelé at the end of the letter.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began last 24 February, already leaves in this country a total of 4.074 dead among the civilian population and another 4.550 injured, according to data released Tuesday by the Office of the High Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights.
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