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Lubkivsky: 900,000 fans visit Ukraine during Euro 2012

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June 25, 2012, 5:27 p.m. | Ukraine — by Interfax-Ukraine

English fans cheer before the Euro 2012 soccer championship quarterfinal match between England and Italy in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, June 24, 2012.
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About 900,000 fans have visited Ukraine so far during the Euro 2012 European Football Championship, Director of UEFA Euro 2012 in Ukraine Markiyan Lubkivsky has said.

"According to our border guards, the crossing of the border by passengers grew by 25% and now amounts to six million people, starting from June 5. That is, around 900,000 [fans visiting Ukraine]," he said at a briefing during his visit to the fan embassy on Besarabska Square in Kyiv on Monday, June 25.

He added that most foreigners were had travelled to Ukraine to attend Euro 2012 matches.

Lubkivsky said that about 200,000 fans were organized groups and that the rest were traveling independently.

"That is, the total number of fans, according to the calculations of the State Border Service, now stands at about 900,000 people. I think that there will be a million fans," he said.

At the same time, Head of the State Customs Service of Ukraine Ihor Kaletnik said that four million people had crossed the Ukrainian border since the start of the championship. 

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Chris CARTER June 25, 2012, 7:07 p.m.    

Funny numbers ! So, why the stadiums were not full ? Where are these millions of fans ? Propaganda...

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Charles Spencer June 25, 2012, 7:39 p.m.    

Could be right, but most Ukraine stadiums where quite full, but if countries like my own...England spread false rumours of racists etc....then many will not travel.I travel a lot to the Ukraine to see my fiancée there, near to Donetsk, and knew that there would be no trouble at all...it the British media up to their normal tricks of fiction before facts...to sell newspapers. Ukraine footy fans know more about our players than we even do, they watch the Premier league etc. I see no violence when I am in the Ukraine...sadly I can not say the same of my country.....I admit the city where I have a house in the Ukraine Horlivka....is many years behind that of the UK, roads are quite bad...all the money is spent in Donetsk instead...how how funny it is, that the president lives there, ignores the plights of the people in Horlivka. I adapt to how life is there, much much slower than in the UK, and can live very very well over there, but could not do the same in RIP OFF BRITAIN. I think many of the footy fans whom made the journey to the Ukraine, will think highly of the place, that they had been subjected to PROPAGANDA by the BBC etc.

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