Despite the destruction of their home city in Russia's invasion, a women's football team from Mariupol has been reborn in Kyiv with 27 players in the squad.
ADVERTISEMENTIn an empty stadium in Ukraine’s capital, a group of women soccer players draped in blue-and-yellow flags prepared for the match of the day.
As at every game these days, they observed a minute of silence for those who had died following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The logo on their team kit reads: “Mariupol is Ukraine.”
They are members of Mariupol Women’s Soccer Team.
The eastern port city was devastated and captured by Russian forces last year after more than two months of stiff resistance by outmanned and outgunned Ukrainian forces, turning Mariupol into a worldwide symbol of Ukrainian defiance. The city is now under Russian occupation.
Refusing to give up, five original players from Mariupol have formed a new team based in Kyiv, recruiting members from all over the country.
Their goal? Not only to keep their place in the league but also to remind everyone that despite the Russian occupation that will soon reach the one-year mark, Mariupol remains a Ukrainian city.
“Our main motivation was when playing in every game, every week, to make people see on video and on all social media that the Mariupol team exists, that Mariupol is Ukraine, and even if it’s under temporary occupation, it is still temporary,” said coach Karina Kulakovska.
This week, the team was playing a match for the Ukrainian championship against the “Shakhtar” team, a tiny snapshot of normality on a soccer pitch. But not quite.
The authorities have banned spectators from attending the match due to security risks, resulting in an empty stadium and an eerie silence.
To reach the field, players use an entrance which is stacked with sandbags bearing the word “shelter.”
Midfielder Alina Kaidalovska remembered the 60 seconds of silence before the start of her first game in Kyiv after she fled Mariupol.
“This minute of silence was very hard," she said
As memories flooded her mind, she recalled the bombed and charred buildings in the besieged city, the terror of running and hiding from Russian strikes, and the heartbreak of seeing people lose their lives.
"In my head I saw all these events that happened, very fast, fast, fast… all these people, how we were hiding, running around, falling on the ground. All these people who were dying."
"You have to stand during that minute ....Those of us from Mariupol, we were almost shaking, it was very hard," she added.
In a humble stadium nestled amidst Kyiv’s multi-storey buildings, she and the other players gather for two hours every morning for training.
They know they won’t win this year’s Ukrainian championship, but keep training so that the team stays afloat.
ADVERTISEMENTIn 2015, Kulakovska embarked on her coaching career and co-founded the Mariupol Women’s Soccer Team along with club president Yana Vynokurova.
It is now the oldest women’s team in Ukraine’s Donetsk province, a region that has been largely devastated by the ongoing war.
In early 2022, the Mariupol team ranked fourth in the top league of women's clubs.
But the fighting which began on February 24, 2022 not only interrupted the soccer season but also thwarted the Mariupol team's ambitions to rise higher in the rankings as it brought calamity on their city and scattered players all over the world.
The core members of the team, including the club president and the head coach, sought refuge in Bulgaria as they struggled to come to terms with the trauma of their time spent in besieged Mariupol.
ADVERTISEMENTBut when a new soccer season began in August, the idea of returning to Ukraine and starting their team again gave them the hope and courage to take the risk, even though they had nothing.
Other clubs and people donated equipment, uniforms, even football boots.
After a turbulent first few months, the club has now grown to 27 members, ranging in age from 16 to 34.
Despite the diversity of their native cities, their dark blue training suits proudly display the logo linked to Mariupol, which features a seagull with a soccer ball in the background, a nod to the city’s location on the north shore of the Sea of Azov.
A myriad of problems and a lack of funding notwithstanding, the women are determined to play.
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Team captain Polina Polukhina, 33, said she hoped she and the team would one day return to play at the club's official stadium in Mariupol, her native city.
“Naturally, deeply inside we hope that we will return there one day," she said
Polukhina has played football since she was 18 years old and said it was an honour for her to be part of the Mariupol team, even in such difficult times.