TARTAN Army fans belted out the Ukrainian national anthem at the World Cup qualifier play-off last night.
Scotland’s supporters were asked to sing along in solidarity with Ukraine fans ahead of the crucial match, which had been postponed by the war.
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Language-learning website and mobile app Duolingo helped by printing out flyers with phonetic versions of the lyrics to the tune, which translates as: “Ukraine’s glory and freedom are not dead yet.”
Scotland’s pipers also learned the Ukrainian national anthem to make the several thousand visiting fans — many displaced from their country by the Russian invasion — feel welcome before the match at Hampden Park, Glasgow.
The Ukrainian side walked out wrapped in national flags. Fans from the Scottish Football Supporters Association were joined by opera singer Vasyl Savenko and duo Julia Kogut-Kalynyuk and Kateryna Trachuk, plus Glasgow’s Voice of the Town choir, to sing the anthem.
One fan wrote on social media: “Incredible scenes during Ukrainian national anthem at Scotland v Ukraine. The whole world pulling for you Ukraine.”
Another added: “I just wept at the Ukrainian national anthem and the emotion with which it was screamed and sung and yelled by everyone in the stands and on the pitch.
“This is one of those football moments the world won’t soon forget.”
It was Ukraine’s first competitive football match since Russia began its barbaric war in February.
The conflict has dominated the build-up to the match, which was postponed in March.
Ukraine manager Oleksandr Petrakov’s men have spent the last month training in Slovenia and played friendlies in Germany, Italy and Croatia.
The country’s home-based players have not been involved in any competitive matches since December as the war began during their winter shutdown.
Scotland were aiming to make it to their first World Cup in 24 years — and ninth in total.
But there was disappointment as Ukraine won 3-1.
Ukraine are now in their first World Cup finals since 2006 — their only other appearance.
The lyrics for Ukraine’s national anthem are based on an 1862 poem by Pavlo Chubynsky and the music was composed by Mykhailo Verbytsky in 1863.
The song was formally adopted as the country’s anthem by the Ukrainian parliament in 1992.
Its words have taken on a new poignancy since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
They include the lines: “The glory and freedom of Ukraine has not yet perished.
“Luck will still smile on us brother-Ukrainians.
“Our enemies will die, as the dew does in the sunshine.
“And we, too, brothers, we’ll live happily in our land.”
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