Ukraine ice hockey team, dodging air raids, play on 'to show we're still alive'

MISKOLC, Hungary : Ukraine's national ice hockey players have been forced to train with air raid sirens interrupting practice, sending them underground for cover as they worry about their loved ones, but they have managed to keep their focus.

The team visited Hungary this month as part of preparations for the third-tier world championships in Estonia. Their training programme in Miskolc included two friendly games against Hungary, both of which they won - against a team scheduled to play in the first-tier championship, two full divisions higher than Ukraine.

"It's kind of weird," said assistant coach Konstantin Simchuk. "Somebody in the war and somebody just playing hockey... We understand that we have to keep it moving, we have to play hockey and we have to show probably to all the world that we are still alive."

For player Igor Merezhko, travelling to Hungary meant much more than two victories against the hosts - it meant a reunion with his best friend from the heavily shelled Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, now occupied by Russia.

Merezhko, 24, was playing for the Russian club Rubin Tyumen when he woke up on Feb. 24 last year, the first day of the Russian invasion, to learn that Russia had bombed Mariupol where his friend Vadim Mazur played.

"I didn't actually think about family first, I think about my friend, Vadim ... I texted him first," Merezhko recalled.

Staying in Russia was no longer an option. He played a few more games for the Russian team as he could not end his contract right away. Then he broke his jaw on the ice, giving him the chance to leave. After rehabilitation, he signed up with Danish club Odense Bulldogs.

His friend Mazur moved to play for the club Sokil Kyiv, which won the Ukrainian championship this