For Ukrainian competitors, Invictus Games are break from war

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: Until a few days ago, Volodymyr Musyak was on the front lines defending Ukraine from Russia’s devastating assault on his nation. Now he’s preparing to pick up a bow and arrow in the Invictus Games archery competition. The sporting event for active service personnel and veterans, who are ill, injured or wounded opens Saturday and ends April 22 in this Dutch city that calls itself the global center of peace and justice.

Those concepts seem a world away to the team of 19 athletes from Ukraine and their supporters as they settle in The Hague for the games. “I think that emotionally it’s something that requires time ... because we come from a very disturbed area as we come from the areas where the actual killings every day are happening, the shelling, the bombing, we hear sirens every day,” said Oksana Horbach, Ukraine’s Invictus Games National Coordinator.

One of the team, Taira Paievska, did not even make the trip after being taken hostage by Russian forces in Mariupol where she worked as a paramedic, Horbach said. Four Ukrainians who were not due to participate in the games but were active in the worldwide community of injured servicemen and women died in March, two while on active duty and two in rocket attacks, Invictus Games organizers said on their website. Pavlo Kovalskyi, who is participating in rowing, archery, wheelchair basketball and possibly also sitting volleyball, said that, as well as competing, he wants to spread the word about the harsh realities of war in his homeland.