Second Ukrainian Basketball Player Killed in Germany Knife Attack

A second Ukrainian basketball player has succumbed to his wounds and died after a knife attack in the city of Oberhausen, allegedly at the hand of a migrant gang.

Two Ukrainians who fled to Germany for safety after the Russian invasion of their homeland and who played in the Basketball Bundesliga under-19s for the Düsseldorf team ART Giants have been killed in a knife attack.

The pair were attacked by a group of what police say were migrant-background youths in Oberhausen, near Dusseldorf in North Rhine-Westphalia on Saturday 10th of February. 17-year-old Volodymyr Yermakov died in the hospital of his wounds the same day.

Now his friend and teammate 18-year-old Artem Kozachenko has also succumbed to his wounds sustained in the same attack, dying some ten days later. German newspaper Die Welt reports Kozachenko had been in intensive care but his condition had “recently deteriorated dramatically”.

While Ukrainian media states the pair were stabbed “simply because they are Ukrainians”, the German Welt states police believe there is no evidence of a xenophobic motive against the migrants by a different group of migrants.

The paper notes police have arrested a prime suspect, who they believe is the knifeman, described as a 15-year-old “German Turk”. Also under investigation are alleged accomplices, a 14-year-old “German Greek” and two Syrian migrants aged 14 and 15-years-old.

The Ukrainian government has urged Germany to investigate quickly and ensure the perpetrators “be brought to justice”.