A Lithuanian athlete was kicked out of the World Cup for wearing a T-shirt similar to Zelenskyy's. In response, the entire national team withdrew from the World Cup. Photo fact

Lithuanian athlete Kornelija Dudaitė was suspended from the World Functional Sports Championships in Hungary for wearing a T-shirt with the anti-Russian slogan "Make Russia small again." After her expulsion, the entire Lithuanian national team refused to continue participating in protest against the admission of Russian athletes.

Dudaitė explained that she chose the T-shirt to express her civic position, emphasizing her dissatisfaction with the presence of athletes from the aggressor country. According to the Lithuanian woman, the organizers of the competition first warned her about the need to change her T-shirt, but after she refused, they decided to disqualify her.

"The organizers said that the T-shirt was a provocation. They asked me to change, threatening to disqualify either me or the whole team. I wasn't afraid of disqualification, but I didn't want to let my team down. So I insisted on being officially expelled," Dudaitė told Delphi in an interview.

After that, the entire Lithuanian team expressed solidarity with Kornelija and refused to participate in the championship. The team emphasized that their decision was due to disagreement with the policy of the organizers, who allowed Russian athletes to compete under a "neutral" status.

Make russia small again is a reference to Donald Trump's election slogan: Make America great again (the last phrase translates to "Let's make America great again").

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy received a T-shirt with this print as a gift on October 23 at a meeting with representatives of Ukrainian civil society.

In the evening of the same day, he recorded a traditional address to the nation wearing this symbolic T-shirt. This caused a huge hysteria in the Kremlin.

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