JUST over a month ago, Maksym Bilyi’s biggest concern was how he and his Rukh Lviv team-mates would perform in the second half of the season.
They had no hope of catching top two Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kyiv but a successful mid-season break in Turkey had filled them with confidence of a solid, mid-table finish in Ukraine’s Premier League.
Rukh Kviv owner Grigory Kozlovsky wanted his team to win the Champions League – now the focus is on staying aliveCredit: Chris EadesThe Ukrainian Premier League team boast some of the best football facilities in the countryCredit: Chris Eades
Now, centre-half Bilyi spends his time wondering not if but when he will be going to the front line in his country’s war with Russia.
The shocking speed at which Ukraine has been devastated is perfectly illustrated by how the life of every person at one top club has been turned upside down.
Rukh Lviv are an up-and-coming outfit who boast the newest training facilities in the country and the best, according to staff who proudly proclaim: “Better even than Shakhtar’s!”
Driven by the wealth and ambition of a local millionaire businessman, Rukh were promoted to the top flight the season before last.
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They are aiming to establish themselves as a top-tier force but owner Grigory Kozlovsky’s ambitions go even further.
Along with landing the Champions League, his dream is that one day the entire starting line-up for a Ukrainian international will be products of the club’s new youth academy.
But those dreams are for the future as for everyone from tea lady to owner cares only about the daily, bloody reality of war.
Kozlovsky has evacuated his family, the press officer spends his days manning a village checkpoint and catering workers are feeding 700 refugees at the club’s stadium.
Some staff have joined army units and even players are contemplating signing up.
Bilyi, 31, a top-flight player for 13 years including two seasons at Hajduk Split in Croatia, said: “No players from our club have gone to the front line yet. But we will.
“If the Russian soldiers head this way we will take up arms.
“Nobody is thinking about football anymore. Before we would think about it all the time and we would train a lot and always be thinking about the next match.
“Football dominated our lives but now it doesn’t seem important anymore.
“Before, we cared about winning matches, now we just care about being alive.
“We went to Turkey for our mid-season break, which was good. We had good results and all the players were in excellent shape.
“Fans were looking forward to the matches and staff were busy getting ready and selling tickets for the first game.
“But, just before it was due, the war started.”
‘VERY SCARED’
Team-mate, Bohdan Boychuk, was left in fear for his parents after they were trapped in Kherson, the first sizeable city to fall to invading troops.
Kherson is now under Russian control as desperate locals face a daily battle for food.
Boychuk, 25, says: “There is a real shortage. People can get just one item a day such as a loaf of bread.
“They are very scared but at least the shooting has stopped and luckily I am still able to phone them. I call them every day.”
When asked if he would be prepared to take up arms to defend his parents — and his country — should the need ever arise, Boychuk is as determined as his team-mate Bilyi. Without hesitation, he said: “Yes, of course.”
Press officer Bogdan Tymovchuk, 37, used to spend his days coordinating media coverage for matchdays.
He was also busy preparing for the grand opening of the training facilities — nine pitches and state-of-the-art gym facilities surrounded by commercial developments to boost revenue including a hotel and ski slope.
A lavish ceremony planned for May has been scrapped, as have matchday press conferences.
Instead, he is one of thousands who are manning village checkpoints which have sprung up all over the country in scenes reminiscent of World War Two.
Tymovchuk said: “Our concern used to be if the players were fit and whether we would win three points. Now we worry about war.
If the war comes to Lviv we will all fight, and that includes the players
Grigory Kozlovsky
“Our Instagram account would be full of posts about the players. Now it is to organise volunteers to help refugees and the military.”
Like the club’s owner, Tymovchuk sent his pregnant wife and their three-year-old son abroad out of harm’s way.
He said: “I am pleased she is safe but I know she will be worrying because there may come a time when I will have to fight.”
Kozlovsky — referred to as Mr President by club staff — occupies a top-floor office at the training facility with a balcony which overlooks the pitch where the first team would train in peacetime.
Wearing a yellow training top which, in football tradition, bears his initials GK, he bursts out laughing when it is pointed out they also stand for goalkeeper.
He is proud of his own career as a keeper although he never quite made it to the top level.
It is a rare moment of levity as the conversation turns back to the war.
He said: “If the war comes to Lviv we will all fight, and that includes the players.
“Everyone will take hold of a gun. We will fight to the end. Putin will regret he ever invaded.”
LVIV ATTACKED
A couple of days after we spoke, war did indeed come to Lviv when four cruise missiles each carrying a 400kg conventional warhead slammed into the city’s airport just a few miles from the training ground.
The frontline which would involve players taking up arms may not yet have reached the west of Ukraine, but Lviv still feels like a city at war.
Downstairs in the deserted canteen, centre-half Bilyi talks with an admirable modesty that not all footballers are blessed with.
He acknowledges how the hero worship of fans now counts for nothing and that he and his team-mates are no different to anyone else in a country of 44 million heroes.
He said: “Footballers are heroes all over the world because they score goals and win matches. But that is no longer the case in Ukraine.
“We are no longer the heroes. Soldiers are the heroes and the ordinary people helping refugees and volunteering for the military.
