Invictus Games offer break from war for Ukrainian competitors

Ukrainians who just days ago were on the front line defending their country against Russian forces are preparing to take part in the Invictus Games.

Volodymyr Musyak is preparing to pick up a bow and arrow in the Invictus Games archery competition in the Netherlands.

The sporting event for active service personnel and veterans who are ill, injured or wounded opens on Saturday and ends on April 22 in the Dutch city that calls itself the global centre 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 team manager Oksana Pashkevych.

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, Ms Pashkevych 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 organisers 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.

Travelling to the games gives the 31-year-old a chance “better to tell, convey information to the audience, our friends, our new acquaintances, just fellow athletes, what is happening now”, he said.

Ukrainian