Kiev's Euro 2012 chief shrugs off stress While he was preparing Ukraine to co-host Euro 2012, Borys Kolesnikov had a heart attack. No wonder, because Ukraine's vice-premier and minister in charge of the football tournament had a stressful job. Uefa, Europe's football authority, were threatening to strip Ukraine of Euro 2012 unless preparations speeded up. Western countries were criticising Ukraine's authoritarian drift even before the government locked up the opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko for seven years. Yet now, sitting on the terrace of his office overlooking Kiev's old Dynamo stadium, fiddling with a packet of cigarettes but not smoking, Mr Kolesnikov appears pleased. He believes the young state's coming-out party is going swimmingly, especially after Ukraine's unfancied team beat Sweden in its opening match. What issues there are, he mostly attributes to Ms Tymoshenko and to sponsors. Euro 2012"s biggest problems so far - alleged racist chanting by fans in Krakow, Russian hooliganism in Warsaw - have occurred in co-host Poland. "God forbid that they happen here," says Mr Kolesnikov, speaking in Russian, the first language of many from eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region. But we are greatly disappointed by events in Poland, because we regard them as our partners. Mr Kolesnikov was a natural choice to run Ukraine's half of the tournament. Like many in President Viktor Yanukovich's circle, he comes from around Donetsk. He owns companies in food and agriculture - "with total sales close to $1bn," he adds proudly - and is vice-president of Shakhtar Donetsk, the football club owned by his oligarch friend Rinat Akhmetov. A photo of Shakhtar's team adorns his ministerial office. Yet nothing in his experience can have prepared him for the torrent of foreign criticism ahead of Euro 2012. Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor, called Ukraine "a dictatorship." A BBC television programme alleged widespread racist violence in Ukraine and Poland. Mr Kolesnikov shrugs: "The fans who come here are telling me the European press cheated them: no bears here, no racists. The press sometimes has subjective opinions. For instance, certain circles in Germany hoped and expected that Ukraine would fail with preparations for Euro 2012 and that Germany would become host country. He admits Ukraine's infrastructure for the tournament - estimates of total costs range from $5bn to $15bn - was built in a hurry. But he blames that on the Tymoshenko government, which left office in 2010. "The biggest problem is that the previous government didn't leave any design blueprints," he complains. If you want to talk about corruption, talk to the Tymoshenko government. I'm not criticising the opposition, I never did, it doesn't sound smart. But it's not clear to me why they treated such an important project so cold-heartedly. Ms Tymoshenko is serving her sentence in Kharkiv, one of Euro 2012"s host cities. She says she has been beaten in jail. Mr Kolesnikov, also infrastructure minister, says the infrastructure will accelerate Ukraine's development. Seventy-four years of dictatorship and 19 years of anarchy threw this country far back. I haven't heard of any country in the world that in 18 months builds five international airports. We launched speed trains. We repaired or built nearly 2,000km of road. Ukraine had hoped the tournament would attract up to 1m foreign visitors. But the streets of some host cities have looked largely devoid of fans, with many flying in only hours before kick-off. Seats were empty even at the high-profile France-England game. "I cannot explain why those spectators aren't coming," Mr Kolesnikov says. It was the job of Uefa to call sponsors and find out. "I feel bad about this," he adds. Empty seats abounded again at Ukraine-France on Friday night. And why are chants of "Russia!" heard so often at games in Ukraine, even though Russia is playing in Poland? Mr Kolesnikov points out that many Russians have come to matches here. But he adds that many Ukrainians retain a soft spot for Russia's team. Listen, for almost 70 years we were part of the same country. I've been going to the stadium since I turned eight. Lots of hardcore fans are fans from the time when we only rooted for one team, the Soviet team.