eyewitness
“My relatives tell me about what is
happening. It’s a horror from which you
want to wake up,” said Shevchenko of
the tragic events in his country. “Kyiv is
bombed, children and old people who
cannot leave are killed. It seems like a
terrible dream. It seems that tomorrow
Iwillwakeupandreturntonormal
life, but this will not happen...this is
a terrible reality”.
Shevchenko, who is very popular in
Italy, addressed fans ahead of the Italian
Cup match between Milan and Inter
with a request to help stop the war.
At the same time, Ukrainian
footballers from the top European
leagues have created a fund to help
the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with
Serhiy Rebrov, Oleksandr Zinchenko,
Vitaliy Mykolenko, Andriy Yarmolenko,
Ruslan Malinovskyi, Viktor Kovalenko
and Roman Yaremchuk among the
players to have initiated it.
Yarmolenko, who was born in
Saint Petersburg (or Leningrad, as
it was known in1989 when he was
born), personally helped the residents
of his hometown Chernihiv, which was
subjected to numerous bombings. In
particular, the stadium of the Ukrainian
Premier League club Desna Chernihiv
was completely destroyed – ironic,
given that the ground was once named
after Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin,
the first man in outer space, when it
was renovated in1961. Now it was
the target of Russians bombs being
dropped from the sky.
“Russian invaders are dropping
unguided bombs on the peaceful
quarters of the city where I grew
up. How is this possible in the 21st
century?” asked the West Ham
United forward.
“I am very grateful to Andriy
Yarmolenko for the help he gave
to his city,” said Vyacheslav Chaus,
head of the Chernihiv Regional Military
Administration. “These are special
devices for our military scouts. This
is what they really need right now.
Andriy, thank you.”
Ukraine has three fully professional
national leagues: the Premier League,
First League and Second League, with
63 clubs across the divisions. In the top
flight alone there are more than 50
foreign-born players whose lives havebeen plunged into uncertainty. A recent
report inThe Guardianrecounted the
story of many of them, forced to flee
their homes in the middle of the night.
The Bureau of the FIFA Council has
allowed players based in Ukraine to
register with other clubs, regardless of
transfer windows being open. Dozens
of foreign-born players have already
completed moves abroad, mostly
on loan.Junior Moraes, for example,
a naturalised Ukrainian with11
international caps, has returned to
his native Brazil to join Corinthians,
having scored over100 Premier League
goals for the likes of Metalurh Donetsk,
Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk
since arriving in 2012.
In spite of all this, there are those
who are pretending that nothing terrible
is happening in Ukraine. Among them is
Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, Ukraine’s most-
capped player with144 appearances,
who is continuing to work as assistant
coach for Zenit St. Petersburg.
The Ukrainian Football Association
(UAF) have already stripped the former
midfielder of all regalia. He was excluded
from the register of national teamOn the front line...Sheriff Tiraspol’s Ukrainian
manager Yuriy Vernydub has returned home
Unity...West Ham’s
Andriy Yarmolenko
gives his shirt to a fan
with a Ukrainian flagDisowned...
former Ukraine
captain Anatoliy
Tymoshchuk on
international duty