Life and death in Shakhtar Donetsk, from a baby born in the war to a murdered father-in-law: "We only hope that Putin dies"

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“Before

.

Not now.

Now, after everything they've done to us,

."

Sunday night falls on the

, headquarters of the Ukrainian

in the heart of the

capital .

The players in

's squad have just returned from training and are preparing to have dinner and rest.

In 48 hours they will receive

as locals, but very

.

Their

,

, is completely destroyed and now they are a "

», whose home is the bus: Lviv, kyiv, Rzeszow, Leipzig, Madrid, Glasgow... And now Warsaw.

«

(stop the war)», says the vehicle that transports the expedition, in which the names of some of the Ukrainian cities most affected by the war can be read.

appear in the corridor of the hotel

who now form a

in the soul but raised by the

of its soccer players, exempt from going to war if they do not want to in order to keep Ukraine in the sports elite.

"This is also about emotions and football is one of the biggest."

Shakhtar's bus with the slogan 'Stop the war'.Shakhtar

and

arrive at a table

, who sit with EL MUNDO to reflect a country that makes no distinction between soccer stars and ordinary citizens.

Everyone suffers, each in their own way.

Petryak,

, lost his father-in-law, "

", in May, killed by the Russians at the front, while

, just

,

in April, in the city of

, in full escalation of the warlike conflict.

"My daughter was born in a situation that I would not wish on anyone"

They are two stories of death and life separated by just a few weeks, the summary of the battles that millions of Ukrainians face every day.

“The first days of the war were chaotic.

I stayed with my partner in kyiv for ten days and then we moved to Lviv with my parents for four months.

, in a

», explains Sudakov.

View this post on Instagram

“My father-in-law died on May 7.

He got into the army early on because he wanted to.

He wanted and he is already.

He had never held a gun, he wasn't a soldier, he was a

who just wanted to protect the country from him.

», says Petryak, whose father-in-law was a barber in Smila, a small town 200 kilometers from Kiev.

"My father-in-law told me: 'Ivan, I have to go'"

“When the war started he sent the whole family to Budapest and he stayed.

Only I knew.

He told me directly: 'Ivan, I have to go.'

And he left ".

Did

? From him?: «The first idea was to go, something that almost all men would do, but then you need to decide.

What is the best?

My father-in-law had already given a lot for his country before going to war, but

.

For him and for many like him who continue to fight, I hope we win very soon.

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In the Shakhtar locker room, the nostalgia for memories mixes with the rage of the present.

Of a war that does not end and that every minute is present in his heads.

A few hours before the talk with this newspaper, Petryak and Sudakov had read about the

.

But when they wake up on Monday they will be informed about the

, including Kiev and Lviv.

“My parents, my wife and my daughter live in kyiv, but they have come to Warsaw for the match,” Sudakov mentioned on Sunday with a smile.

“Most of the time I am traveling, I don't have enough time to see my daughter.

It's very uncomfortable," he added.

"I don't want to see my children fighting in the war"

In a few years, the children of Sudakov and Petryak will be older and, perhaps, will continue to fight the same battles in which their relatives gave their lives.

Shakhtar footballers hope not.

No podemos dar pasos atrás porque los rusos nunca van a parar, no han parado desde que empezaron en 2014. Lo han preparado todo durante ocho años y ahora... Yo

», admite Petryak, who tries to be honest with the little ones in the house: «I have a three-year-old son and a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter.

The one with three knows everything because he tried to explain it to him.

I think he should know.

And to the one who is smaller, the time will come when he will have to tell her everything.

He has to know what they have done to us ».

“Winning and going home, to the life we ​​all had before”, as Sudakov sums it up, is the only way out of a conflict that has a protagonist above all:

.

"Well... This breaks me," Petryak starts, asked by the Russian president: "To be honest, I wouldn't want to talk to him.

We're just waiting for him to die.

...

To defenseless people who are in their homes, civilians, not military.

What am I going to say to someone like that?

Any.

I only hope that he dies ».

Ivan Petryak, player of Shakhtar.

"How can we focus on football?"

Shakhtar's players are far from the front line, but they keep friends with whom they speak "every week" in the front line and who, unfortunately, "

."

Some are colleagues like

, who was in the army and is now recovering from torn ligaments.

They, meanwhile, give their best on the pitch, donate money and try to win their personal "little battles".

“I decided not to go to the front because I think I

, that I can do more for my country there.

I am grateful to the soldiers who defend us and give us the opportunity to play.

I think that with football we give people positive emotions," confesses Sudakov.

Giorgi Sudakov, Shakhtar player

A few hours after the talk, the Shakhtar dressing room woke up "in shock" at the news coming from their country.

"They were crestfallen at breakfast," they said yesterday.

“

?” they asked.

The summary was given by Petryak: «With football you can forget everything a little, but after each training session or match you pick up your mobile and... It can be a good thing, if you are lucky, or very bad».

Tonight, Madrid.

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