where did the Ukraine matches go on Russian TV?

If we are not officially talking about censorship, the broadcast of the blue and yellow selection matches is absent from Russian televisions.

No sporting truce in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. If the Ukrainian selection can still qualify for the round of 16 of Euro 2024 within a very undecided Group E, Russian viewers will know nothing about it.

Indeed, the main channel which broadcasts Euro matches in Russia has not broadcast Ukraine’s matches since the start of the competition. Officially, there is no talk of censorship. But if you look for matches or, more modestly, images of the Ukraine team on Match TV, you won’t find any.

The main sports channel in Russia, a subsidiary of Gazprom Media, does not, in fact, deliberately broadcast the matches of the Ukrainian selection. To see them, there is only a paid and more confidential channel. Generally speaking, Russian sports media cover at least the journey of the Ukrainian selection.

If there is no censorship, self-censorship is very real. With this question that probably haunts the programmers: what to do if Ukraine goes far in the competition? Russian authorities are the first to say that sport should not be politicized. In fact, not broadcasting a final phase match would be more difficult to bear.

But there is also the risk that images undesirable to those in power will then appear on the screens. For example, during the group match between Turkey and Georgia, Georgian fans started chanting “Putin is an idiot” in the stands.

The footage mysteriously disappeared from rebroadcasts on Russian television.