Schalke removes Gazprom logo from shirts after Russian attack against Ukraine

The Russian gas company Gazprom's logo will be no more on Schalke 04 jerseys, the German football club said on Thursday, protesting the Russian attack against Ukraine.

In a statement on their website, Schalke said that the Gelsenkirchen club decided to remove the lettering of their longtime main sponsor from kits because of the Russia's military intervention in Ukraine.

It added that Schalke 04 will be on the chest of the club shirts.

Gazprom has been the Royal Blues' main sponsor since 2007.

Schalke are currently in Bundesliga 2.

After finishing last in the German Bundesliga's 2020-21 season, Schalke were previously relegated to the second-tier league.

Schalke are seven-time Bundesliga and five-time German Cup winners. The Gelsenkirchen club won the UEFA Cup-rebranded Europa League in 2009-in 1997.

In addition to Schalke, Gazprom sponsors the UEFA Champions League, UEFA National Team Football such as the EURO 2020 and 2024, and UEFA Super Cup as well as Russian football club Zenit St Petersburg.

Zenit's home stadium has been also named Gazprom Arena.

DONBAS CRISIS AND RUSSIA'S MILITARY INTERVENTION

Ukraine's February 2014 "Maidan revolution" caused President Viktor Yanukovych to flee the country and a pro-Western government to come to power. Russia then illegally annexed Crimea, and separatists in eastern Ukraine declared their so-called administrations of Donetsk and Luhansk, both home to large ethnic Russian populations.

Deadly clashes broke out between Russian-backed separatist forces and the Ukrainian army. The 2014 and 2015 Minsk agreements, signed in Moscow with the intervention of Western powers, sought to stop the conflict but cease-fire violations continued, resulting in some 14,000 deaths as of February.

Late last year, Russia made headlines by deploying tens of thousands of its troops on the border with Ukraine, with the US accusing it of gearing up for an invasion -- claims Moscow denied. Amid threats of Western sanctions, Moscow recognized the separatist administrations in Donbas and launched a military operation in Ukrainian territory on Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the operation's aim was to protect people "subjected to genocide" by Kyiv and to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine. He called on the Ukrainian army to lay down its arms.