February 24, 2022 is a date that will be forever etched in the mind of Taras Stepanenko.
The Shakhtar Donetsk captain was at his home in Kyiv with his wife and three young sons, when suddenly he was awoken by noises everyone in Ukraine had been fearing.
“At 5am I heard the sounds of explosions,” Stepanenko tells Standard Sport. “I woke up and started to read the news, we realised the war had started.
“Immediately, my family and I went to the basement of our house. We had food, water and medication, so we stayed there for three days.”
Eventually, Stepanenko and his family decided it was safe to leave.
They had kept in touch with neighbours on their street, who spoke of the initial mad rush and how some had spent 24 hours in traffic trying to flee the city.
Stepanenko’s wife and children are now safely living in Spain, but back in Ukraine the war with Russia rages on.
Football continues, too. Despite everything, Shakhtar players are still competing both domestically and in the Champions League, and on Tuesday they face Arsenal in London.
“If you think about the situation, you get tired and sometimes you can’t perform at your best,” admits Stepanenko, who is hoping to shake off a knee injury to be fit.
“My family live abroad and so the last time we were together was August. To be this long from your family is not good for a father, for a husband.”
Stepanenko speaks to his family every day on FaceTime and tries to get to Spain when he has a day off, but they are few and far between with the packed schedule and the travel involved for Shakhtar.
Flights in and out of Ukraine are a rarity and as such getting anywhere outside the country usually involves a coach to Poland, before getting on a plane.
It means for Stepanenko to see his family it can take 12 hours and likewise the journey to London to face Arsenal is equally arduous.
“It’s difficult physically and also mentally, because you don’t have enough time for recovery,” says Stepanenko. “The trips are so long, you are sitting on the bus, you can’t do some treatments like teams usually do in that time.
“We cope with this environment because we have been playing in this situation for two and a half years, but to be honest, physically and mentally, it’s hard.”
A glamour Champions League clash with Arsenal at Emirates Stadium is a far cry from what Shakhtar experience when playing domestically these days.
Matches in the Ukrainian top flight are routinely stopped by air sirens warning of missile strikes.
Shakhtar’s game with Kryvbas at the start of September was postponed after 51 minutes as it would have been impossible to restart and finish before that evening’s curfew.
Sometimes you sit there all together – the other team, the referees – and you just realise, it’s not about football in the end
Taras Stepanenko
“One time we were playing in Dnipro,” recalls Stepanenko. “It is about 250km from the fighting, so it is easy for the Russian missiles to get there.
“We played for six hours. We started at 3pm and finished at 9pm. We had three or four alarms.
“It is difficult as you get sent to the basement – you warm up once, twice, three times – and you can lose motivation for the game. Sometimes you sit there all together – the other team, the referees – and you just realise, it’s not about football in the end.”
Football certainly feels secondary with everything that is going on in Ukraine and Stepanenko is aware he and his team-mates are in a privileged position.
It is why they are so determined to give a good account of themselves in the Champions League and use the platform to shine a light on what is going on back home.
“We have our duty to our country,” says Stepanenko. “We try to compete, to do our best, because our people struggle a lot.
“You understand that at any moment something bad could happen. This feeling is always inside you.
“So the people who live in peace, sometimes they don’t realise what war is. They can see it on television, they can hear the news, but you don’t realise these feelings – the anger, the heartbreak.
“A lot of people my age are now in the army, they defend the country and they left their families and children.
“We understand this and that’s why we are privileged to play football. We can represent our country in Europe and the world. We can send a message and wave our flag.”
