“ DIAMO UN CALCIO ALLA GUERRA IN UCRAINA” - INTERVISTA A YURI
1.Since the blog MAGIC FANS is entirely dedicated to ultras and football fans, I would like to know if football team players and ultras who have reached the age of majority are subject to mandatory recruitment or can they choose?
Contrary to popular belief, the war in Ukraine did not start in 2022, but in 2014. The Russian annexation of Crimea led to it, as well as the actual occupation of parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Even then, Ukrainian ultras and hooligans, perfectly understanding the seriousness of the threat posed by Russia, stood up to protect their country, having previously concluded a non-aggression pact against each other.
In February 2022, things turned out to be much more serious. Considering the scale of the offensive of the Russian army and the speed with which it advanced across the territory of Ukraine from several directions at once, there were much more military volunteers. The general mobilization, announced on February 24, continues to this day. First of all, reserve servicemen with combat experience who served under a contract or took part in hostilities in the zone ATO (anti-terrorist operation in Donetsk and Luhansk regions) fall under it. Then military personnel who served on conscription until 2014, and then those who graduated from the military department at universities and became a reserve officer and other persons who do not have age (under 18 and over 60) and physical limitations. Professional football players have a reservation and at the front of their just few persons. This reservation does not apply to amateur football players, so there are many more of them in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In fact, there are many nuances in the law on mobilization, which it makes no sense to retell. It is enough to know that Ukrainians across the country went en masse to defend their cities, homes and families, without waiting for summons to be drafted into the army. The motivation of the population turned out to be so high that in the first days of a full-scale invasion of the military registration and enlistment offices there were queues of those who wanted to take up arms in order to repel Russian aggression. And now, 9 months later, this motivation has not gone away, because to one degree or another the war has affected everyone.
2. Have football stadiums or other sports venues been damaged during the hostilities?
All infrastructure suffers from hostilities in Ukraine, and the sports infrastructure is no exception. No one knows exactly how many stadiums have been destroyed, because shelling continues, and besides, the territories of several Ukrainian regions are still under occupation, but from what is known, we can conclude that dozens of damaged sports facilities. Among them are large arenas in Chernihiv (Stadium name of Yuri Gagarin, capacity 14.000, football club Desna) and Mariupol (Stadium name of Volodymyr Boyko, capacity 12.680, football club Mariupol), which until recently hosted matches of the Ukrainian Premier league, stadiums professional football clubs from the First and Second divisions, as well as a host of other facilities that played an important role in the sports life of large and small settlements in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Donetsk, Kherson, Mykolaiv and other regions.
By the way, this summer, my friends from the Ukrainian team of groundhoppers released a colorful album, collecting in it photos of all 54 arenas involved in the matches of three professional leagues in Ukraine at the time of the start of a full-scale invasion of Russian troops. They made it to preserve the memory of the stadiums, remembering them as they were before February 2022. If any of your readers would like to have it in their library, please contact by email magshopreport@gmail.com
3. Do ultras groups continue their activities in Ukraine and Russia? Do they publish their own fanzines?
I would not like to talk about what is happening in Russia. In Ukraine, the activity of all ultras movements and individual groups, both right and left wings, boils down to the fact that one part of each team is fighting, and the other, being in the rear, helps its brothers, providing them with everything they need, from medicines and high-quality equipment: helmets, body armor, warm clothes, to night vision devices, drones and cars. There are no fanzines in Ukraine now. Today's mouthpieces for ultras and hooligans are social media. With their help, all important information is distributed, funds are raised for various needs, and so on. Virtually no activity on the stands, despite the ongoing championship, the groups do not lead. Firstly, this is impossible, because for security reasons all matches are played without spectators. Secondly, fans in Ukraine are not up to football now. The exceptions are hanging banners in support of the team in empty stands, memorial events for fallen comrades, fan tournaments and other events held for humanitarian purposes.
4. In the first days of the war, the media showed columns of people, especially families with children on the border with Poland and other neighboring countries, who were leaving Ukraine. There were guys among them, in your opinion, when the war is over, will they return to their homeland?
Few of my friends left. Many did go abroad to take their wives and children to a safer place and then come back. The vast majority of those whom I know dream of returning home as soon as possible, therefore, the sooner the war ends, the fewer people will settle in other European countries. If it drags on for years, then, having made a lot of efforts to arrange their lives in a new place, it will be much more difficult for many to go back.
5. Ukrainian population reacted with great pride and courage to the Russian invasion, but in terms of food and life, with the onset of winter, in your opinion, the situation may become unstable?
The situation is different in every region. For example, in Dnipro, where I live, there are no problems with food. But where there were Russian troops, the situation is much worse. Somewhere it is critical. This mainly concerns the frontline zone. In some areas, there has been no electricity for a long time, there are interruptions in water and food. It is difficult to find words to describe how hellish conditions are in Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, Soledar, Kramatorsk. People do not live there, but survive.
In recent months, Ukraine has been hit by several massive rocket attacks aimed at destroying the country's critical infrastructure, causing problems with water and electricity in all areas. Since then, we have been forced to sit for hours without heat and light due to planned or emergency power outages, because Ukraine's damaged power industry cannot cope with the loads. I think this winter will be very difficult, but I'm sure we'll manage.
6. Please share the contacts of volunteer funds involved in fundraising for those who want to help and show solidarity with the population of Ukraine.
Volunteering in Ukraine is well developed. There are a lot of funds, so I will recommend only a few.
Firstly, this is a fundraising campaign founded by my project MagShop - ultras press. The purpose of this campaign is to help the ultras at the front. In 9 months we managed to raise about 7.500 euros. A little more was collected thanks to the distribution of old Ukrainian fanzines in exchange for donations. MagShop distributed these funds among 25 ultras movements, thereby covering most of the entire scene of the country, from Chernihiv and Sumy in the north to Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kherson in the south, from Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Lutsk and Rivne in the west to Luhansk, Donetsk and Kramatorsk in the east. Here is our PayPal for donations: ekaterina2902@gmail.com.
Recently, the project MagShop - ultras press turned 16 years old. For this event, we have issued a small edition of commemorative pins, all the money from the sale of which will go to the fund Stand of Heroes. This fund helps the families of fans who died in the war. Here is his website https://www.standsofheroes.com, where you will also find bank details.
And, finally, the third fund that I want to advise was founded by Roman Zozulya, a well-known footballer in Ukraine, who played for the national team, Ukrainian football clubs Dynamo (Kyiv) and Dnipro, Spanish Real Betis (Seville), Albacete and Fuenlabrada. He has close contact with the ultras and helps them a lot. Here are links to the pages of his foundation on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/narodnaarmy and Instagram @narodna_army.
