Football’s back in Kyiv, where a goalless draw is a ‘very nice’ escape from life

Shakhtar Donetsk skipper Taras Stepanenko was able to forget about the war for 90 minutes as the new Ukrainian Premier League season got under way in Kyiv.

Six months since last season was suspended in the wake of Russia’s invasion, competitive football returned on Tuesday when Shakhtar met Metalist Kharkiv at the capital’s Olympic Stadium.

It was a day on which the final score – a 0-0 draw – if far from incidental, was not the big story, a fact acknowledged by midfielder Stepanenko.

The 33-year-old told the PA news agency: “For 90 minutes, I forgot about the war. After the first half, I sat in the locker room and thought, ‘We have already played 45 minutes, very nice, I didn’t hear the alarm in the city’.

“For 90 minutes, I turned off and just enjoyed playing football, very good emotions, very warm emotions, and I feel proud because of that.

If football is back in Ukraine, it is not yet football as Stepanenko and his team-mates once knew it.

The game was played behind closed doors with the clubs allowed to advertise the kick-off time, but on military instructions, not the venue in advance, and the players, staff and officials all had access to air-raid shelters in the event that sirens sounded.

I pray every day and I hope that my country and our people will win this war and our families come back to our homes.- Shakhtar Donetsk skipper Taras Stepanenko

Stepanenko said: “I have waited for this day since the day we started preparation for the championship and I was a little bit nervous.

“But when I heard our anthem, when I saw my team-mates, the opponents, I was proud of my country and I was happy that we started our championship because it’s important for our country and for our people.

“We already have had a war for six