Former Liverpool and Ukraine striker Andriy Voronin, who also played under Jurgen Klopp at Mainz, has quit his job with Russian club Dynamo Moscow.
Voronin enjoyed a 17-year playing career that took in spells with Mainz, Bayer Leverkusen and Liverpool among others, before retiring in 2014 after his final season with Dynamo Moscow.
He returned to the Russian club in 2020 to serve as assistant manager to Sandro Schwarz, helping the club to a seventh-placed finish in the top flight in their first season together.
However, with Vladimir Putin enforcing an invasion of Russian forces into Ukraine, Voronin has now terminated his position with Dynamo with immediate effect.
Dynamo confirmed the news on Tuesday morning, with Voronin having fled Moscow for Germany last week, telling Bild: “I could no longer work in the country that is bombing my homeland.”
“I’m so proud of our country. We have beautiful cities, great people,” the 42-year-old said.
“We will keep fighting. And we will win. But the price is so high. All the dead…”
Voronin was born in Odessa, and moved to Germany as a 16-year-old in 1995 as he joined the academy at Borussia Monchengladbach, but represented Ukraine 74 times at senior level, including four appearances on the route to the quarter-finals at the 2006 World Cup.
“My thoughts and my heart are in Ukraine. I have friends in Kharkiv, in Kyiv, in my hometown of Odessa,” he continued.
“I get messages every five minutes. It’s hard to bear. I just want to help. With money. Whatever…
“And I don’t know if I should say it, but if I were in Ukraine right now, I’d probably have a gun in my hand too.”
Kharkiv was struck by Russian missiles on Monday night, while the capital of Kyiv has been the subject of an ongoing assault by Putin’s forces.
“Ninety percent [of people in Russia] don’t even know what’s happening,” Voronin said.
“Putin doesn’t care about the people. It harms not only us, but also the Russian people.”
Voronin played 40 times for Liverpool over two seasons, while Klopp has lauded his former striker on a number of occasions, having seen him score 29 times in 71 games at Mainz.
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