Luciano Luchi: “I knew that there was a war in Donbas for 8 years, but I could not imagine a large-scale attack by the Russian F

The head of the UAF refereeing committee, Luciano Luci, told where he was on February 24, when Russia invaded Ukraine on a full scale.

“On Saturday, we, together with the referees and assistant referees, returned from the winter training camp held in Antalya. The next week promised to be busy, because on Monday it was necessary to appoint referees for the 19th round of the UPL, and on Tuesday, to make a presentation of the third VAR van to the press.

On February 24, I was awakened by a strong explosion at about five in the morning. When I went out onto the balcony, I heard another one, saw smoke somewhere in the Boryspil area and realized that something very bad had begun. Yes, there were rumors that Russia was planning an outbreak of military aggression in Ukraine. I knew that a war had been going on in Donbas for eight years, but I could not even imagine that they would resort to a large-scale attack.

Together with the chairman of the ethics and fair play committee, Francesco Baranka, we decided to evacuate in the direction of Lviv. But we only got to Pobeda Avenue, where our car stopped in an endless traffic jam. I opened Google Maps, saw a red line 200 km towards Lviv and realized that it was impossible to get there.

We decided to apply to the Italian Embassy, ​​where families of Italians who were in Ukraine at that time began to gather. The Italian Ambassador organized for us and all these people a shelter in his capital residence, where we stayed for three days.

We managed to evacuate thanks to the efforts of the OSCE, the UAF and the Football Association of the Chernivtsi region, who organized the transfer from Kyiv and moving to Moldova. Although I still remember how at 5 in the morning we stood in a long line to cross the bridge across the Dniester," Luchi said.