Ukraine: „I can’t believe this is happening here” – Vasyl Rats on the war

Vasyl Rats, a 60-year-old footballer from Vynohradiv, received our call in Zakarpatska Oblast. The midfielder of Dynamo Kyiv's 1986 Cup Winners' Cup team and the 1988 European silver medalist Soviet national team said that five days before the war broke out, he moved into a sanatorium near Svaliava, which he had visited from time to time.

„Here in the mountains, the situation seems safe for the time being, but it is getting worse every day in the country – said the member of Dynamo Kyiv's old boys' team. – I keep in touch with my friends in Kyiv; some of them sit in the basement with their families. I spoke to Igor Belanov the other day. As far as I know, he's in Odessa now. I see the footages on TV, and I can't believe this is happening here. It is incomprehensible that two sister nations, Russians and Ukrainians, are fighting each other in the twenty-first century.”

Translated by Vanda Orosz