Anatoliy Trubin should be enjoying life as a professional football player. Instead, the 20-year-old is doing his part to help Ukraine survive the Russian invasion.
The Shakhtar Donetsk goalkeeper, who also played for the national team, was living in the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk as he spoke to CNN about life in his war-torn country.
Lutsk was targeted by Russian missile attacks last month and Trubin was heartbroken by the devastation he saw in his homeland.
“I don’t understand how this is possible in 2022 and for me it’s like a nightmare and it’s really scary for everyone in Ukraine,” Trubin told Patrick Snell of CNN Sport.
The Ukrainian domestic league was suspended amid the fighting, leaving players like Trubin free to help with the relief effort.
He says his Donetsk teammates have started raising money for war victims and Trubin wants to use his platform to send messages of hope to those facing the brutal reality of war.
“Many players are helping our country and of course I will do the same. It is important for our military and our country,” he said.
“We have a lot of messages on our social media, so we try to connect and put our powers and minds together for different things.
“We try to buy things and ship them to different cities. It is very difficult, but it is very important for our people.”
Trubin is one of several Ukrainian sports stars who stayed or returned to Ukraine to help during the war.
Former boxers Wladimir and Vitaly Klitschko — the latter of whom is currently mayor of Kiev — and current world heavyweight Oleksandr Usyk have joined the Ukrainian forces, as have world MMA champion Yaroslav Amosov and former tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky.
Usyk left Ukraine, posting a message to Instagram on March 25 saying he “has decided to start preparing for a rematch with Anthony Joshua”. There is still no date and place set for the fight.
Trubin explains why so many of his countrymen felt compelled to help in the efforts.
“Our spirit is one of the strongest,” he says of the Ukrainians. “This part of our spirit, no one can take from our body. We try to give everything.”
“My heart is bleeding. Too many people, too many children, are killed and I don’t understand that. Putin is a murderer and I don’t understand how that is possible.”
Trubin spoke to CNN on March 24, just over a week before shocking atrocities in Ukraine, allegedly at the hands of Russian forces, amplified calls to prosecute war crimes charges against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Images of at least 20 bodies strewn across the street in Bucha, Ukraine, surfaced over the weekend after Russian forces pulled out of the area, prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to call for an end to Russian “war crimes”.
And Trubin says he has a message for those waging war in his homeland.
“We will win this war and our country will be stronger, more beautiful and one of the best in the world”, he says. “Everything will be alright.
“That’s why we keep in shape and keep training. We want to move abroad to have a place where we can train better.”
Ukraine was involved in last week’s World Cup draw in Doha, Qatar.
For Ukraine to participate in the World Cup, it must first beat Scotland and then Wales.
The playoff game against Scotland was initially scheduled for March 24, but was postponed by FIFA to June following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A date for the rescheduling of the qualifiers has not yet been announced by FIFA.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
