DEMYDIV (UKRAINE) – As Ukraine’s football season kicked off on Tuesday despite Moscow’s ongoing invasion, players from a Mariupol club are hoping to do their devastated city proud after a dramatic escape from Russian troops.
FSC Mariupol are warming up in the tiny village stadium of Demydiv 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of Kyiv — hundreds of kilometres from their base in the strategic port hub on the Sea of Azov.
Oleksandr Yaroshenko, the club’s president, told AFP that he motivates the team’s players by telling them: “You don’t just play football. You have to play because we are…
