Football Match In Ukraine Lasts 4.5 Hours Due To Air-Raid Alarms

A Ukrainian Premier League match on Wednesday lasted 4 hours and 27 minutes instead of the normal 90 minutes after being interrupted by air-raid sirens. Rukh Lviv and Metalist Kharkiv kicked off their match at Ukraina stadium in the western city of Lviv at 15:00 local time (12:00 GMT) and finished it at 19:27, with three pauses after sirens sounded. Metalist eventually won 2-1, with the teams spending 145 minutes in a shelter in total and no strikes being detected in the area.

Ukraine launched its new football season on Tuesday despite Russia's ongoing invasion, in an attempt to give a morale boost to the war-ravaged nation.

Four matches were played on that day but none of them was interrupted due to air-raid alarms.

Matches are held without spectators due to security reasons.

Many clubs play their home games not in their own cities, but largely in the safer western or central regions.

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Ukrainian clubs decided in April to end the previous season early after it was suspended following Russia's invasion which began on February 24.

On Wednesday Ukraine marks its Independence Day, with the US warned a day before that Russia could attack Ukrainian government facilities in the coming days.