You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Ukrainian. (May 2021)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
View a machine-translated version of the Ukrainian article.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Ukrainian Wikipedia article at [[:uk:Путін — хуйло!]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|uk|Путін — хуйло!}} to the talk page.
It originated in Ukraine in 2014, having grown from a football chant first performed by FC Metalist Kharkiv and FC Shakhtar Donetskultras in March 2014 at the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian War. The phrase has become a protest song and is widely spread in Ukraine amongst supporters of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as those opposing Vladimir Putin in both Russia and Ukraine.
The obscene term (mat) хуйло́ is variously transliterated as huilo, huylo, khuilo, khuylo, or chujlo. Also there are dialect variants хуи́ла (huila), хуи́бла (huibla). Its core is хуй (huy), literally "penis", in both Russian and Ukrainian. Combined with the suffix -lo, it is a personal insult. It can be translated as "dickhead", but its connotation is far more pejorative in those languages than in English.[2]
Marker graffiti "ПТН ПНХ" (PTN PNKh). "ПНХ" stands for пошёл на́ хуй (poshól ná khuy), "go fuck yourself", so the graffiti can be translated as PTN GFY, "Putin go fuck yourself"). Novosibirsk Akademgorodok, Russia, July 2022.
The first recorded public performance of the "Putin khuylo!" chant and the song that grew from it took place in March 2014 in Kharkiv, when the local fans chanted it during their street march.[9] The recording was soon posted to YouTube. Various groups of Ukrainian ultras of major Ukrainian clubs with the exception of FC Sevastopol have historically held strong pro-Ukrainian political views. These football fans sided with Ukraine at the onset of the Russian annexation of Crimea and military intervention, as well as during the pro-Russian unrest in the east and south of Ukraine, when the city of Kharkiv was in turmoil.[10][11]
Soon, the song that vulgarly derided Putin gained wider popularity, spreading amongst other clubs, such as the fans of Shakhtar Donetsk (Donetsk) and Dynamo Kyiv (Kyiv), who were formerly feuding but sang the song together.[10][12] During the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014, in which Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and used proxy forces to occupy parts of the eastern Donbas region, the ultras of various Ukrainian clubs set aside their rivalries and chanted the song in joint street marches.[8] The chant became "a nationwide cultural meme" according to The Guardian.[13]
In June 2015, the Russian Federal Security Service started a criminal prosecution and investigation of activist Daria Poludova for using the song on VK.[15] The case was dropped after Poludova's lawyer demanded a confrontation with the victim, Putin, as required by law.[16]
When Russian television channel TNT aired one episode of the Ukrainian sitcom Servant of the People in December 2019,[9] a scene containing a joke that referenced the song, in which the fictional president played by Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked "Putin khublo?" («Путин — хубло?») when told that Putin wore a Hublot watch, was cut out of the episode.[17] The omission occurred only within central Russia and the Moscow region, but not in the eastern regions of Russia.[18]
Use
In music
Several Ukrainian mainstream rock music bands included or adapted the chant into their music. A metal remix, released in April 2014 by AstrogentA, added instrumentation and reworked the video of the March 30 protest chant to depict its spread throughout Ukrainian football clubs.[19]
In May 2014, the Ukrainian band Teleri (band)[uk] released a song and a video titled "Putin Hello!" Their song uses a double entendre, substituting the objectionable word "khuylo" with the English word "Hello!" Alluding to the "Putin huylo!" chant, the video features band players wearing Ukrainian football club colors and posing as ultras marching and chanting "Putin Hello" as the refrain of the song. The band members asserted, tongue-in-cheek, that the linking of their song to an offensive anti-Putin chant was a misunderstanding and insisted that the only people who found the chant objectionable were Russians unfamiliar with English.[20]
Hromadske.TV aired a live performance of the song by Lemonchiki Project in May 2014.[21] The rock band Druha Rika performed the song at their concert in June 2014.[22] Other rock adaptations were made by Mad Heads[23][24] and Haydamaky.[25] The Kyiv Post reviewed nine video versions of the song and two other related songs.[26]
In sport
In October 2014, Belarusians joined visiting Ukrainians in a performance of the chant by "nearly the entire stadium" at a UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying match in Barysaw, Belarus, resulting in more than 100 Ukrainian and 30 Belarusian football fans being detained and interrogated, reportedly on suspicion of using "obscene language".[27] Seven, all Ukrainian, were sentenced to five days in jail for obscene language, whilst one was given a 10-day sentence for allegedly wearing a swastika.[28]
In art
In December 2022, a statue giving a visual interpretation of "Putin khuylo" was erected in the English town of Rowley Regis,[29] but by 5 February 2023 it had been removed.[30]
Shortly afterward, Ukrainian PresidentPetro Poroshenko nominated a different diplomat to lead the Foreign Affairs ministry.[44] According to the Ukrainian media, the presidential plan to replace the minister was known prior to the incident,[45] being proposed as part of a bigger reshuffle in the Ukrainian government. Soon after, Poroshenko praised the work of Deshchytsia, who was then leaving his ministerial position, and the parliament gave the outgoing minister a standing ovation.[46]
Deshchytsia's use of the wording caused widespread discontent amongst the Russian leadership.[1] However, Geoffrey Pyatt, the US ambassador to Ukraine, wrote on Twitter that minister Deshchytsia's use of the chant had been "seeking to defuse a dangerous situation", calling Deshchytsia "a skilled diplomat and credit to Ukraine."[1]
Arsen Avakov
In July 2014, Arsen Avakov who was the Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs, one of the country's major security agencies, published a Facebook post with a photo he took that showed a bus stop near Sloviansk covered by a "Putin Khuilo!" graffiti.[47] The minister's post included his comment with the picture saying: "A private opinion some place near Sloviansk. Aligning myself."[48]
Russian invasion of Ukraine
The phrase became popular again during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian brewer Yuri Zastavny began preparing glass bottles to be used for anti-Russian Molotov cocktails with the English-lettered label "Putin Huylo".[49][50]
Ukrainian hackers disabled electric vehicle charging stations in Russia so that instead of providing a charge, the stations display a scrolling message that includes the phrase.[51][52]
Christian Diemer. Mutterlandpop. Lokale Markierung und Entgrenzung musikalischer. Darbietungen auf ukrainischen Feiertagen // Speaking in Tongues: Pop lokal global / Dietrich Helms, Thomas Phleps. — Transcript Verlag, 2015. — PP. 78–80. — 219 p. — (Beiträge zur Popularmusikforschung, Vol. 42). — ISBN9783839432242. — ISBN3839432243.
Frédéric Döhl, Klaus Nathaus. Annäherungen an einen flüchtigen Gegenstand. Neue Literatur zur Geschichte der Musik aus Journalistik, Historiographie und Musikwissenschaft // Neue Politische Literatur. — 2017. — Bd. 62, Nr. 3. — S. 491.
Taras Kuzio. Ukraine: Democratization, Corruption, and the New Russian Imperialism: Democratization, Corruption, and the New Russian Imperialism. — ABC-CLIO, 2015. — С. 112. — 641 с. — (Praeger Security International). — ISBN9781440835032. — ISBN1440835039.
Oksana Havryliv. Verbale Aggression: das Spektrum der Funktionen // Linguistik Online. — 2017. — 25 Aprils (Bd. 82, H. 3). — S. 27–47. — ISSN 1615-3014. — DOI:10.13092/lo.82.3713.
↑ Ольга Бычкова (18 June 2014). "Особое мнение: Артемий Троицкий"[Special opinion: Artemy Troitsky (An interview with Artemy Troitsky)] (in Russian). Echo of Moscow. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
↑ Gordon, Aaron (28 February 2022). "Russian Electric Vehicle Chargers Hacked, Tell Users 'PUTIN IS A DICKHEAD'". Vice.com. Retrieved 1 March 2022. AutoEnterprise's Facebook page re-posted a video taken by an Instagram user from the M11 motorway showing the disabled chargers. The chargers show an error message reading in English "CALL SERVICE NO PLUGS AVAILABLE" before new screens show additional messages in Russian: 'GLORY TO UKRAINE / GLORY TO THE HEROES / PUTIN IS A DICKHEAD / DEATH TO THE ENEMY.'
↑ Goodin, Dan (28 February 2022). "After Ukraine recruits an "IT Army," dozens of Russian sites go dark". Ars Technica. Retrieved 1 March 2022. Instead of recharging vehicles, the stations displayed a message that said, among other things: 'GLORY TO UKRAINE / GLORY TO THE HEROES / PUTIN IS A DICKHEAD / DEATH TO THE ENEMY.'
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
