‘The worst possible nightmare’: voices from Ukrainian football as war rages

On the day the war began, I was in Kyiv with my family. I have been injured recently, so could not train with the team. At 5am my young son awoke, and my wife got up to calm him. Then we heard the explosions, one after the other. We thought there had been an accident, but then we read online that the war had begun. We quickly began to gather our belongings. I am Georgian, and was in Georgia in 2008 when Russia attacked our country, so this is not the first time I’ve been through a war. I told my wife: “Let’s get ready more quickly.” I drove the car closer to our house, loaded it with things and then waited for a couple of my teammates. They are foreigners and also have young families. We drove away from Kyiv together.

The cities of Zhytomyr and Bila Tserkva, which are being bombed, are not far away. Another nearby city, Vasylkiv, was bombed non-stop for three or four days. Only the sounds of the explosions reach us, lighting up the sky at night. We have gone to a village a safe distance away, and at the moment we are calm.

On the way, we stopped at the shops. There are children with us who need artificial nutrition. In the village there is only one open store: the adults buy food, while parents have stocked up on enough mixtures for the kids.

Almost all of the Kolos players are gathered here now. Everyone wanted to stay, but every day one or two people have left. Those who remain have nowhere to go; if they were to go anywhere then it would only be to places where the Russians shoot and bomb. It is hard to leave the country: there are checkpoints on the highways and queues everywhere. If you do not manage to reach a town where it is safe to spend the night then it will be dangerous to go out after 5pm because we have a