 His arrival was met with protests from the club's fans, unhappy over his purported far-right links after a picture of him wearing a shirt with the Tryzub and lyrics of poet Taras Shevchenko was misinterpreted as featuring the logo of the Right Sector.Zozulya vehemently denied any such links in an open letter to Rayo's fans, declaring that he has only assisted the legitimate Ukrainian army during the Russian military intervention in Ukraine.On 1 February 2017, Zozulya had his contract cancelled due to the reactions of Rayo fans and returned to Betis.