Gavin Cooney reports from the Aviva Stadium

UKRAINE MIDFIELDER SERHIY Sydorchuk says he and his team-mates play for Ukraine to raise awareness not only of the war but of his nation’s resistance. 

Ireland and Ukraine meet for the very first time in an international game at senior level in tomorrow night’s Nations League fixture, with the Ukraine squad exempt from a ban on any man of fighting age leaving the country. 

“Everybody knows what is happening in our home country, and what our people are going through”, Sydorchuk told the media at the Aviva Stadium. “Our aim, our task now, is not only to go onto the pitch and play but to call for the whole world’s attention to highlight that we are Ukrainians, we are alive and we are fighting.” 

Asked if he faced a dilemma as to whether he should stay and fight or play football, Sydorchuk replied, “I can’t really answer for everyone in the team but a lot of sports personalities in Ukraine took up arms, there are plenty of examples of that. President Zelenskyy said when the war started that every Ukrainian should be in his or her place, in order to be helpful in the best way possible to bring victory. I think what I am doing on the football pitch is what president Zelenskyy said, in my best capacity to bring glory to Ukraine.” 

Ukraine arrive in Dublin days after their World Cup dream was dashed, losing 1-0 to Wales in their playoff final in Cardiff on Sunday. 

“It’s not difficult to get fired up for the game because when you get feedback from Ukraine, when you get to know soldiers watch our games in trenches and the people who are following us under the bombs, it gives us enormous strength, enormous inspiration. So this game, it’s very easy to get set on.”

Sydorchuk gave a bracing account of fleeing the war in February along with his wife, who was then eight months pregnant. Many of his family remain in Ukraine, in the city of Zaporizhzhia.

“I want to say is this: Zaporizhzhia is not taken by the Russians. They are surrounding the city. They are probably 50, 60 kilometres away. My mother, my father, my granny, my wife’s parents are still in Zaporizhzhia. My whole extended family are still there. I am happy to say that it is relatively calm there but I feel very proud that the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag is still above the city. That gives me the strength to carry on.”

Sydorchuk described a “dead silence raining over the team” in the aftermath of the World Cup play-off defeat, with players retiring to their rooms without emerging for an hour. 

“Coach Oleksandr Petrakov said that men should remain men and the Ukrainian team should turn this painful page. Because tomorrow, a new story is awaiting.” 

“I am trying my best to support the players”, said Petrakov. “I cannot be sulking and sad because life goes on . It’s all in the past, the Wales game, let’s move on and let’s forget. This is football, this is sport, this is how it works.”

With the domestic league suspended since the invasion’s onset, the domestic players in the squad travelled by bus to a training camp in Slovenia on 30 April. They played a series of friendly games across Europe and were then joined by their players based abroad ahead of the World Cup play-offs.

Petrakov said he has not yet decided how many changes he will make to the team for the game with Ireland, but they will be without goalkeeper Heorhiy Buschan, midfielder Taras Stepanenko and defender Eduard Sobol. 

“I just want to say that I love my country. I want to be back. No matter where I travel, I think the best place in the world is our capital, Kyiv. We don’t know what will happen next or how the situation will pan out, what will happen in the Premier League, what will happen in the new season.

“I just want to say that I really want to go home and for the situation to normalise. That’s my major concern.”

Both Sydorchuk and Petrakov departed to a round of applause from the Irish press, with the manager conveying us a message before he left. 

“I wish you peaceful skies overhead.”