EURO mascot road show: Donetsk

Donetsk mayor Oleksandr Lukyanchenko welcomed the UEFA EURO 2012 mascots to the "heart of Ukrainian football" as the as-yet-unnamed twins continued their tour of the tournament host cities on Tuesday.

The two UEFA EURO 2012 mascots crossed Ukraine from west to east to reach Donetsk – their second stop in the country after visiting Lviv at the weekend. Their journey had begun in the Polish host city of Poznan last Thursday.

The twins were greeted at the Donbass Arena, home of FC Shakhtar Donetsk, by Lukyanchenko, Ukrainian tournament director Markiyan Lubkivskyi and Ian Borden, McDonald's Ukraine general director. At the event, former Soviet Union and Shakhtar player Viktor Grachov was also presented as a Friend of UEFA EURO 2012 in Ukraine.

"I'm really delighted to see these wonderful mascots in the heart of Ukrainian football," Lukyanchenko said. "I think we have good reasons to call Donetsk this, after its successful staging of the 2009 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, the opening of the great Donbass Arena and FC Shakhtar's recent achievements. I like the mascot twins very much and I have no doubt the citizens of Donetsk will love them as well."

The mascots were met with open arms by well-wishers lining the streets during their parade through the city centre. They also attended a ping-pong competition for orphans, a youth dancing contest and a football match between two of Donetsk's top student teams. On Wednesday the mascots took part in photo sessions at McDonald's restaurants and visited a local orphanage.

Donetsk was the third of eight stops on the road show which ends in Warsaw on 4 December, when the mascots' names will be announced.

Naming the mascots
Fans in Poland and Ukraine have been choosing their favourite sets of names for the UEFA EURO 2012 mascots. You can have your say via UEFA.com before the deadline of 3 December, choosing from the following options:
Slavek & Slavko
Siemko & Strimko
Klemek & Ladko

Road show schedule
26 November – Wroclaw
26-27 November – Kharkiv
28-29 November – Kyiv
29 November – Gdansk
4 December – Warsaw (mascots names revealed)