The obscene term is variously transliterated as huilo, huylo, khuilo, khuylo, or xujlo. Its core is , literally "dick" in both Russian and Ukrainian. In combination with -lo it may be translated as "dickwad", "dickhead" or "prick". The words are identical in Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian. In West Slavic, the word does not exist, except in Polish and Slovak that have chuj; Polish transliterates хуйло as chujło. In May 2014, media outlets reported that the Russian profanitykhuilo had been added to the Urban Dictionary as a synonym for Vladimir Putin. The expression, for the reason of circumventing censorship, may be abbreviated as "птн х̆ло". The letter х̆ is an overlay of the Cyrillic letters х, у and й, a well-known joke about "a new Russian letter". Another abbreviation containing a similarly suggestive meaning is "ПТН ПНХ", which stands for "Путин, пошёл на хуй".
History
The chant has its origins in "Surkis Khuylo!", a football chant that was initiated by the ultras of FC Metalist Kharkiv some time in 2010, during the height of a feud between two Ukrainian oligarchs, Oleksandr Yaroslavsky, then-owner of "Metalist", and Hryhoriy Surkis, then-president of the Football Federation of Ukraine who had strong historic and family ties with FC Dynamo Kyiv. The Kharkiv fans, who sided with their club president, chanted "Surkis Khuylo!" to express their dislike of the Football Federation president in vulgar and profane form. 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. The recording was soon posted to YouTube where it went viral. Various groups of Ukrainian ultras of all major Ukrainian clubs except one have been historically holding strong pro-Ukrainian, sometimes nationalistic, political views and on the onset of the Russian annexation of Crimea and military intervention in Ukraine combined with Russia-incited anti-Ukrainian violence in the East and South of Ukraine, when the city of Kharkiv was in turmoil, the football fans immediately and unequivocally sided with Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. Soon the song that vulgarly derided Putin gained much wider popularity, spreading among other clubs, such as the fans of Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kyiv, who were formerly feuding but sang the song together. During the Russian intervention and partial occupation of Ukraine, the ultras of various Ukrainian clubs set aside their rivalries and chanted the song in joint street marches. The chant continued to grow in popularity and became "a nationwide cultural meme" according to The Guardian. Alexander J. Motyl reported, "A shorthand, more modest version of the lyrics has even entered the popular discourse. If you want to express your views of Putin, all you need do is say 'la-la la-la la-la', and everything's quite clear." Artemy Troitsky identified the melody of the chant as coming from the song "Speedy Gonzales", a hit for American singer Pat Boone in 1962. In June 2015, the Russian Federal Security Service started a criminal prosecution and investigation of activist Daria Poludova for using the song on the VKsocial network. When Russian television channel TNT aired one episode of the Ukrainian sitcom "Servant of the People" in December 2019, a scene containing a joke that referenced the song, in which the fictional president played by Volodymyr Zelensky asked "Putin hublo?" when told that Putin wore a Hublot watch, was cut out of the episode. The omission occurred only within central Russia and the Moscow region, but not in the eastern regions of the country.
Several Ukrainian mainstream rock music bands included or adapted the chant into their music. A metal remix, released on April 21, 2014 by AstrogentA, added instrumentation and reworked the video of the March 30 protest chant to depict its spread throughout Ukrainian football clubs. The Ukrainian band Teleri received international attention following the May 6, 2014 release of 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 Khuylo!" 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. Hromadske.TV aired a live performance of the song by Lemonchiki Project on May 29, 2014. The rock band Druha Rika performed the song at their concert on June 13, 2014. Other rock adaptations were made by Mad Heads and Haydamaky. The Kyiv Post reviewed nine video versions of the song and two other related songs.
aired a footage showing Andrii Deshchytsia, then-acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, uttering the word "khuylo" in reference to the Russian President Putin during his plea with protesters in front of the Russian Embassy in Kiev on the evening of 14 June 2014 following the Ukrainian Air Force Ilyushin Il-76 shoot-down by the Russia-armed rebels. Deshchytsya pleaded the protesters to refrain from violence directed at the Embassy that would cause a bigger diplomatic scandal. Deshchytsia stated: "He is a khuylo, but - disperse, please!" Shortly afterward, Ukrainian PresidentPetro Poroshenko nominated a different diplomat to lead the Foreign Affairs ministry. According to the Ukrainian media, the presidential plan to replace the minister was known prior to the incident, 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. Deshchytsia's use of the wording caused widespread discontent among the Russian leadership. 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."
On July 2, 2014, Arsen Avakov who was a 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. The minister post included his comment to the picture saying: "A private opinion some place near Slovyansk. Aligning myself." A week later, on July 9, 2014, Avakov met the troops of the Kyiv-1 Special Police force battalion. After the traditional drill exchange of "Glory to Ukraine!" greeting followed by the customary "To Heroes, Glory!" response, Avakov exclaimed "Putin!" to which the troops responded "khuylo!" The minister was clearly happy with the response and gave a "Vol'no!" drill command.
International reception
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 questioned, reportedly on suspicion of using "obscene language". Seven, all Ukrainian, were sentenced to five days in jail for obscene language, while one was given 10 day sentence for allegedly wearing a swastika.
