Ukraine Athletes Hoping To Offer "Positive Emotions" For Besieged Compatriots

Ukraine might have sent its smallest delegation of athletes ever to a world championships, but acting federation president Yevhen Pronin said the 22-strong team were just glad to be present in Eugene and offering up a glimmer of hope for compatriots. Yaroslava Mahuchikh claimed a silver medal in the women's high jump on Tuesday, a day after Andriy Protsenko claimed Ukraine's first medal of these championships with bronze in the men's high jump.

"Our country, our team are still in a difficult situation," said Pronin, who hails from a military family and has spent the last four months on the frontline.

"Other teams can stay at home, train at home, see their parents, their children."

Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February, a move that saw World Athletics ban athletes from Russia and Belarus from competing in international competition.

The embrace of Ukraine by the international community had been heart-warming, according to Pronin, who will return to the frontline post-Eugene for three weeks before hoping to make it to Munich for the European championships.

"When the war started in Ukraine... we all said we must be together in other countries, we must be together in Ukraine," he said.

"We're feeling a lot of support. The first day we came to a student dining room here in Eugene, five or six people asked 'can we pay for your lunch?'

"You see a lot of Ukrainian flags in windows in Eugene, but it's not Ukrainian athletes living there!"

No words for Putin

Pronin has a simple answer when asked whether there was a message he had for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"The first message is no words. Five months ago, I can ask Putin to please stop the war, stop the soldiers, but when he killed 300 Ukrainian children, I have no