PARIS (AP) — Ukrainian Oleksandra Oliynykova vowed to keep speaking out about the war in Ukraine after losing to Russian player Diana Shnaider in the third round of the French Open on Saturday.
Before Oliynykova answered any questions at her post-match news conference, after losing to Shnaider 7-5, 6-1, she read out a statement. This was two days after she made critical comments about Shnaider.
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Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine waves after the third round women's singles tennis match against Diana Shnaider of Russia at the French Open tennis tournament in Paris, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine reacts as she plays against Diana Shnaider of Russia during their third round women's singles tennis match at the French Open tennis tournament in Paris, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Diana Shnaider of Russia celebrates winning the third round women's singles tennis match against against Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine at the French Open tennis tournament in Paris, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Diana Shnaider of Russia, left, and Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine change sides during their third round women's singles tennis match at the French Open tennis tournament in Paris, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Diana Shnaider of Russia, rignt, and Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine prepare for their third round women's singles tennis match at the French Open tennis tournament in Paris, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
“I know that some people disagree with my actions. I know that some people would prefer that I stay silent. But what I do is not about politics, it’s about humanity,” Oliynykova said. “When people are being killed, while children are dying, when violence is justified or celebrated, we cannot pretend that nothing is happening. We cannot look away.”
Oliynykova added that it was impossible to talk about this with Russian players on the women's tour because, she said, they “have these horrible beliefs.”
Speaking on Thursday, ahead of their third-round match, she accused Shnaider of liking Russian propaganda posts on social media and vehemently criticized her for playing in a Gazprom-sponsored exhibition tournament in Russia.
Oliynykova called Gazprom a company which has been "financing the war crimes," and added that "my home is being attacked by Gazprom money.”
After Saturday's match, the No. 25-seeded Shnaider said she had not been aware of Oliynykova's comments.
“I haven’t heard anything. I don’t know anything about what she said," she said. "Wasn’t interested at all.”
Shnaider was then asked about having participated in a Gazprom-sponsored event.
“I’m traveling all year round. I’m not seeing my family or my friends,” she said. “I have only one opportunity to play in front of my family, in front of my friends, just to spend a little more time at home.”
After her first-round win, Marta Kostyuk fought back tears when she described how she found out on the morning of the match that a missile almost hit her parents’ home in Ukraine.
Kostyuk said she was feeling exhausted after speaking out against the war for so long, but would continue being outspoken and stating her opinion.
Oliynykova said she has no choice but to continue speaking out.
“This war, it defines my life, because my future is in Ukraine,” she said. "My father, he’s coming back to the army. My boyfriend, he’s a soldier. Everything in my life is defined by war.”
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine waves after the third round women's singles tennis match against Diana Shnaider of Russia at the French Open tennis tournament in Paris, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine reacts as she plays against Diana Shnaider of Russia during their third round women's singles tennis match at the French Open tennis tournament in Paris, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Diana Shnaider of Russia celebrates winning the third round women's singles tennis match against against Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine at the French Open tennis tournament in Paris, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Diana Shnaider of Russia, left, and Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine change sides during their third round women's singles tennis match at the French Open tennis tournament in Paris, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Diana Shnaider of Russia, rignt, and Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine prepare for their third round women's singles tennis match at the French Open tennis tournament in Paris, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
The title match in soccer’s biggest club competition is here: Paris Saint-Germain vs. Arsenal in the Champions League final in Budapest, Hungary.
PSG is looking to win Europe’s elite competition for a second straight year, while Arsenal is bidding to become European champion for the first time on its return to the final after a 20-year wait.
Both teams are coming off winning their own domestic leagues, in France and England, respectively.
Here's the Latest ahead of the 1600 GMT kickoff:
PSG and Arsenal have reached the title match adopting vastly different playing approaches.
PSG is the top-scoring team in the competition with 44 goals -- that’s an average of more than three per game.
Arsenal has the Champions League’s best defense, letting in just six goals in 14 games and keeping nine clean sheets, three more than any other team has registered.
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The man entrusted with being the referee for the biggest match in club soccer won’t even be going to next month's World Cup.
German ref Daniel Siebert was left off FIFA’s list of match officials for the World Cup – after going to the 2022 edition in Qatar – so handling the Champions League final is a consolation prize in a sense.
This will be the third straight round Siebert will have worked an Arsenal match.
Video review – or VAR, as it’s known in soccer circles — will be in operation for the final.
PSG: Matvey Safonov; Achraf Hakimi, Marquinhos, Willian Pacho, Nuno Mendes; Vitinha, João Neves, Fabian Ruiz; Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Ousmane Dembélé, Désiré Doué.
Arsenal: David Raya; Cristhian Mosquera, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Piero Hincapié; Declan Rice, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Martin Odegaard; Leandro Trossard, Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka.
Zohran Mamdani is a big Arsenal fan and the New York Mayor was seen wearing club-branded clothing when he joined residents across the city for Eid al-Adha prayers this week.
In an article he has written for The Athletic ahead of the final, Mamdani said he started supporting Arsenal from the age of 9 after his uncle “introduced me to a team with a cannon on its shirt.”
He says supporting the team “increasingly became an exercise in nostalgia” until the recent uplift under Mikel Arteta.
“Over these past two years, no matter how chaotic life became, Arsenal remained the constant,” he writes.
Mamdani acknowledges PSG is “brilliant” and “frustratingly well-managed” by Luis Enrique, but has a message for Arsenal and its fans: “Enjoy this moment, because they don’t come around often.”
Fans are making their way to the stadium under a cloudy, threatening sky in Budapest, and they’ll have a role to play in the final.
Not least with the rival chants that you might get to hear in your TV broadcast.
PSG’s most notable song will see their passionate Ultras bellow “Tous ensemble on chantera” (All together we will sing).
Arsenal fans have their own chant that has grown in popularity over the last few seasons in manager Arteta’s 6 ½-year reign, with a chorus taken from “The Angel (North London Forever)” -- written by singer and Arsenal fan Louis Dunford in 2022.
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This is the first European Cup final to be staged in Hungary and it comes at an interesting time for the Central European country, a few weeks after right-wing populist leader Viktor Orbán‘s heavy defeat in the elections.
Péter Magyar is the prime minister and is set to attend the match at the 67,000-seat Puskas Arena, a stadium that opened in 2019 and was built on the same site as the previous Ferenc Puskas Stadion — named after the Hungarian and Real Madrid great who won three European Cups as a player.
Orbán is a massive soccer fan and attempted to bring back the glory days of the 1950s, when Hungary had one of the world’s top teams.
To that end, the arena, located a few kilometers east of central Budapest, has become a well-known host for European games. The stadium staged the UEFA Super Cup in 2020, as well as a slew of Champions League group games and four European Championship matches in 2021. In 2023, it hosted the Europa League final won by Sevilla.
Pre-match entertainment is being provided by American rock band The Killers, who are best known for songs like “Mr. Brightside,” “Smile Like You Mean It” and “Somebody Told Me.”
It differs from the Super Bowl, where artists perform in a halftime show.
The Killers, who hail from Las Vegas, predicted an “epic match” when they were announced to be performing – though at the time, they didn’t know who the finalists would be.
In previous years, Linkin Park, Lenny Kravitz and Dua Lipa have been headliners in Champions League finals.
Some 48,000 fans are expected to fill PSG’s stadium in Paris, the Parc des Princes, to watch the match on giant screens.
PSG said Paris mayor Emmanuel Gregoire is among the officials expected to attend.
Former players, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Claude Makélélé and Ronaldinho, have been invited to Budapest for the final.
It’s the first time in 55 years that clubs from two different capital cities are competing in the final of Europe’s biggest club competition.
The last was Ajax (of Amsterdam) vs. Panathinaikos (of Athens) in 1971.
There were only two before that: Benfica (Lisbon) vs. Real Madrid in 1962 and Real Madrid vs. Partizan Belgrade in 1966.
This is also the first major European final featuring teams from France and England.
It’s the last match of the European club season – and World Cup coaches will be watching on with a mixture of intrigue and nervousness.
The World Cup begins in 12 days, and the squads of both PSG and Arsenal are bulging with players heading to the tournament being held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Any injuries sustained in the final could be devastating so close to the big kickoff.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta says winning the Premier League has whetted the players’ appetite for more trophies.
Nothing comes bigger than the Champions League.
“The ambition is bigger,” Arteta said in his pre-match news conference. “We have one, and we want the second one ... there has to be a platform to reach bigger destinations.”
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard was the first player in the squad to get his hands on the Premier League trophy, and he liked it.
“When you get the taste of winning and lifting a trophy,” Odegaard says, “you know how nice it feels. And we want to do it again.”
Many of soccer’s superstar players will be taking the field at Puskas Arena – not least PSG forward Ousmane Dembélé, the most recent world player of the year.
Désiré Doué, the 20-year-old forward who lit up last year’s final with two goals in the record 5-0 win over Inter Milan, is still a shining light for PSG along with Georgia winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and three of Cristiano Ronaldo’s top teammates with Portugal – Vitinha, Nuno Mendes and Joao Neves.
Arsenal has England stars Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice in midfield and the striker who has just sent Sweden to the World Cup – Viktor Gyökeres.
Groups of fans got physical late Friday in Budapest’s frequented party area, leading police to launch an investigation over disorderly conduct.
Videos on social media showed several dozen people throwing punches and kicks, driving another group down Király street in the capital’s District 7.
One fan held a burning red flare before throwing it toward the other group, which was retreating down the street. Budapest police said in a statement that the violence erupted shortly after midnight, and that it was using surveillance footage to try to identify participants.
__ AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
PSG fans hold up their scarves before the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)
The trophy is displayed on the pitch before the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, Jan. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Petr Josek)
Generel view of the Puskas Arena a day ahead of the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
PSG supporters react as they make their way to the stadium ahead of the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rudolf Karancsi-Albert)
PSG supporters are accompanied by security ahead of the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rudolf Karancsi-Albert)
