On August 1, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya attended the opening of the Mikita Melkaziorau Cup. She joined the tournament’s participants and guests to honor the journalist’s memory with a minute of silence before symbolically kicking off the competition with the tournament’s first kick.
The opening ceremony was also attended by Pavel Latushka, Aliaksandr Ivulin, and representatives of FC Pahonia and the Embassy of the Netherlands. Before the tournament began, Ms. Tsikhanouskaya donated her first pair of boxing gloves for a charity raffle. It was during an interview with Mikita Melkaziorau that she first revealed that she practices boxing.
In her remarks, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya drew a parallel between football and Belarusians’ struggle for freedom, noting that even when you are not considered the favorite, success is possible through a strong team, solidarity, and self-belief.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: “Mikita had a unique ability to bring people together — on screen, in everyday life, and on the football pitch. And I believe the best way to honor his memory is to keep doing what he did best: bringing people together around Belarus”.
