NewsNews31 May 2022

"Profutbol Digital" told the story of football players who survived and evacuated from Mariupol

Video: h ttps://youtu.be/fG54E4JVoL Y

Mariupol is a hero city that is a symbol of courage and indomitability for the whole world. Enemy Russian shells, aviation and artillery turned the peaceful progressive city into ruins and total darkness, and hundreds of thousands of people had to experience the hell of war. Among the residents of Mariupol who managed to get out of the occupation, risking their own lives, there were football club players. The editors of "Profutbol Digital", a sports project of the 1+1 media group, talked to the football players of "Olexandria", "Yaruda" and "Mariupol" about the circumstances under which they learned about the beginning of a full-scale invasion, how they had to stay in the basement for a month to preserve life and evacuate in inhumane conditions.

The heroes of the video material, the full version of which is available on the YouTube channel " P profutbol Digita l ", were: player of "Alexandria" Artur Avaghimyan, football players of "Yaruda" Mariupol Ihor Bykovskyi and Yehor Bulgakov, head coach of "Mariupol" Ostap Markevich and his players - Rodion Plaksa and Oleksandr Drambaev.

"I saw the first serious destruction at the beginning of March. After visiting the Kirov district in Mariupol, he did not speak for almost a day. The houses were completely burnt, the gas station seemed to have been blown away by the wind, and people were just standing in the middle of the road with suitcases. Then I clearly realized the scale of the tragedy," Ihor Bykovskyi said during the interview.

In addition, the head coach of FC Mariupol, Ostap Markevich , spoke about how the football infrastructure was affected by the merciless actions of the occupiers:

"Mariupol had one of the best football infrastructures in Ukraine - an indoor arena, one artificial and three natural football fields. In addition, the management of our club was constantly buying the necessary things. However, today, unfortunately, everything there is destroyed. One bomb dropped on the field is a funnel with a depth of 30-40 meters...".

In addition, Artur Avaghimyan shared an archival video from his own house, which was visited by the Russian military after committing looting, told about the boy who saved his trophies, and recalled how his family had to evacuate:

"When we played against Mariupol as part of Chornomorets, I gave my game shirt to a local boy. During the occupation he managed to get in touch with me. He wrote to tell me not to worry, he managed to get the cups and game shirts from my house. And he will return them after I return to my hometown…

Relatives had to leave under shelling. They still cannot come to their senses. They said that on the streets they saw the bodies of dead people, animals and complete devastation all around...".

The editors of "Profutbol Digital" are grateful to each hero of the issue for volunteering to talk about the situation in Mariupol and sharing their own painful experience of being under occupation. The sports projects of the 1+1 media group will continue to tell about athletes who joined the ranks of the Armed Forces and those who experienced the horrors of the unjustified war unleashed by the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine.

The key messages of the releases are #BoycottRussianSport, #TurnOffRussia, #StandWithUkraine, #StopWarInUkraine.

The author of the material is sports journalist Roman Kuplevatsky.

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