While war is still hitting their country since the Russian invasion in February, Ukrainian volleyball players are competing in the Worlds, while their fellow basketball players prepare for their entry into the Euro on Friday.
Beyond sporting goals, volleyball players and basketball players want to offer happiness to their battered country.
Athletes who played in the country until the start of the conflict were forced into exile, like basketball player Viatcheslav Bobrov, who finished the season in Nanterre.
This Monday evening, Ukraine is playing a large part of its future in the volleyball world championship against Tunisia in Katowice (Poland), after its initial defeat against the Serbian cador (0-3).
"We have a sporting objective: to get out of the chickens", announced the coach (Latvian) Ugis Krastins, before the start of the competition.
“In our difficult situation, we also want to bring good emotions to the people and the army of Ukraine.
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Cruel irony of history: the selection owes its first participation in the Worlds since 1998 to the ousting of Russia, sanctioned for having invaded the neighboring country.
“That's not how I wanted to go to the world championships,” breathes captain Oleg Plotnitsky.
“It's very symbolic, but we were drafted thanks to our world ranking, which we have built for five years, specifies Krastins.
We have worked for this.
»
While the volleyball players are already in the heart of the matter, the basketball players finish preparing for their Euro, which will begin with a duel against Great Britain on Friday in Milan.
Unsurprisingly, the speech is similar.
“We want to pass the first round and then we'll see, reports strong winger Viatcheslav Bobrov (29).
We will not only play for us, but for all Ukrainians, in order to give them positive emotions.
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Latvia, unwavering support of Ukraine
His selection remains on three defeats in the World Cup qualifiers, the last two against Italy “at home” (89-97) then in Iceland (91-88), last Wednesday and Saturday.
The quotation marks refer to the war that is ravaging the country, which forces its basketball players to set up their base camp and receive their opponents in Riga, Latvia, with their coach Ainars Bagatskis.
It is also in this same Baltic state that the volleyball players led by Ugis Krastins, also Latvian, had started their preparation for the Worlds, on July 11.
A country whose parliament did not hesitate last month to qualify Russia as a “State supporting terrorism”.
If Bagatskis integrated his two NBA players, Alex Len (Sacramento Kings) and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (Toronto Raptors) in early August, he has to deal with players with disparate levels of form, tested by the necessarily very complicated last months.
"Before the war, almost everyone played in Ukraine," continues Bobrov.
Today, there are players in France, Finland, the Czech Republic, Spain, Turkey, Latvia…” He himself finished last season in Nanterre following an express transfer, precipitated by the events.
Boby Bobrov Nantes rookie until the end of the season 🔥🏀
🇺🇦 |
Post 4 |
203cm |
29yrs #WeAreJSF #BetclicELITE pic.twitter.com/MZk5TRGUS2
– Nanterre 92 (@Nanterre92) February 28, 2022
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On February 24, the native of Donetsk, then a Dnipro player, was in Cordoba with his teammates from the national team to face Spain that same evening.
When a phone call alerted him at 5 a.m.
“My wife called me to tell me that the war was starting.
She packed a few suitcases and drove non-stop for 12 hours with our 7-month-old son, all the way to Moldova.
»
Direction then Bucharest then Paris, where her husband joined her.
“Laurent Foirest [assistant to Vincent Collet on the bench of the Blues and coach of the Béliers de Kemper in Pro B], whom I had known when I was playing in Quimper, sent me a text message to ask me if I was available.
He told me that he was in contact with Philippe Da Silva (assistant coach of Nanterre 92) and that the club wanted to sign me.
On February 28, the transaction was formalized.
Logistics support
For all athletes playing in Ukraine, the season ended with the Russian invasion, and national coaches had to deal with this fact.
“Nearly half of my 16 players played in the country, slips Ugis Krastins, the volleyball coach.
But beyond that, many are from Kharkiv [the country's second city, near the Russian border], where there is daily bombardment.
It's complicated for them, especially on days when these bombardments are even more intense.
Sometimes they are very affected morally.
»
Captain Oleg Plotnitsky (25) has not returned to his country since September 2021. “You are still worried, even when the bombings do not affect your city, explains the receiver-attacker from Perugia, Italy.
It's important to help the people who defend the country, to keep in touch.
In Perugia, there have been many initiatives launched.
I try to send food, baby equipment.
»
The Ukrainian volleyball championship must resume
Under the aegis of an assistant coach also from Kharkiv, trucks with electric generators were sent to the country.
On the side of Nanterre, the basketball player Viatcheslav Bobrov also participated in this type of initiative, with compatriots settled in France.
"We sent a lot of material to Kharkiv, food for the children, diapers, clothes..."
Sometimes forced into brutal exile, always worried about their loved ones back home, Ukrainian volleyball players and basketball players have prepared their respective competitions as well as a team whose country has been hit by bombs can do.
All praise the solidarity they have encountered during their wanderings in recent weeks.
But the fate of the two sports will soon diverge.
Like the football championship on August 24, that of volleyball must resume, indicates coach Ugis Krastins.
“A professional league between eight teams will be organized on a single site, in Chernivtsi, a relatively safe city near the Romanian border,” he explains.
Basketball clubs in exile
On the side of the big orange ball, Viatcheslav Bobrov will also find a Ukrainian team after the Euro: BK Boudivelnyk kyiv.
Except that the formation, engaged in the playoffs of the Champions League, will not evolve next season in the capital of his country.
“There are discussions with the Italian federation, indicates the ephemeral player from Nanterre.
Boudivelnyk wanted to play in Pro A in France, but clubs did not agree and we were offered to start with Pro B. However, the club wanted to play at the highest level.
Another Ukrainian club, Promethey, is expected to be based in Riga, Latvia.
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The future of Bobrov and Ukrainians in general still looks like a question mark.
This does not prevent certainties, as when the basketball player is asked about the decision of the French Federation to no longer select elements evolving in Russia or Belarus.
“It's a fair decision not to let players fly the colors of terrorists who kill normal people in Ukraine.
»
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