Dynamo Kyiv’s winning streak in domestic competitions came to an end in a home match against Karpaty. The narrow defeat to the Lviv side appears highly unjust. The goal scored by Matvii Ponomarenko was disallowed by referee Dmytro Panchyshyn who relied on what was, at the very least, an unprofessional intervention from the VAR team.
Below, in an illustrated commentary, the club’s press service highlights concerning trends in refereeing decisions in matches involving Dynamo Kyiv.
See for yourself by watching the following video clips.
In the Matchday 8 game against Metalist 1925 Viktor Kopiievskyi failed to award a clear penalty in the 23rd minute after a foul by Ivan Lytvynenko on Vitalii Buialskii. The match ended 1:1. The referee’s mistake was later acknowledged by the UAF Referees Committee as confirmed by refereeing consultant Nicola Rizzoli. However this did not restore the lost points for Dynamo.
In the following round Dynamo were denied victory against Zorya after a goal by Pylyp Budkivskyi. Moments earlier referee Oleksandr Shandor should have called a foul on Shola Ogundana who was forcefully pushed off the field. No foul was given, Zorya were awarded a throw-in and eventually equalized.
Matchday 11. Shakhtar vs Dynamo. The key incident occurred with the score at 2:1 involving Shola Ogundana and Yukhym Konoplia. Shakhtar defender clearly pushed the Dynamo player in the back and kicked his legs inside the penalty area. Referee Vitalii Romanov along with VAR official Ihor Paskhal ignored the violation. According to Nicola Rizzoli and the Referees Committee it was a 100% penalty that should have been awarded.
It is also necessary to recall the moment from the 2025 Ukrainian Cup final. In the 84th minute Pedro Henrique fouled Nazar Voloshyn which gave referee Mykola Balakin a clear reason to award a penalty that could have decided the outcome of the trophy. The referee ignored the foul and VAR official Denys Shurman also failed to intervene. The Referees Committee did not comment on this key episode.
Finally the disallowed goal by Matvii Ponomarenko remains on the conscience of Dmytro Panchyshyn and Oleksii Derevynskyi. The former failed to stand by his original decision to award the goal while the latter, responsible for VAR, identified a violation where none existed, depriving Dynamo and its striker of a deserved result.
Notably Derevynskyi has previously made a decisive error while serving as VAR. Less than a month ago he failed to alert referee Vitalii Romanov to a handball by Yukhym Konoplia in a match against Metalist 1925. Instead he intervened moments later when a Kharkiv player committed a foul in the penalty area against Shakhtar forward. The penalty awarded after VAR review ultimately secured victory for Shakhtar.
At the same time the Referees Committee and Nicola Rizzoli personally paid no attention to the earlier handball by the Shakhtar defender.
The head of the Referees Committee Kateryna Monzul was a direct witness to the controversial refereeing decisions in Dynamo’s recent match against Karpaty. It would be interesting to know how she evaluates the performance of Panchyshyn and Derevynskyi.
With this statement FC Dynamo Kyiv draws the attention of the football community to a series of serious refereeing errors that undermine the fundamental sporting principle of fair competition and match outcomes.
