Shakhtar's head coach Ihor Jovicevich talks about the war and the mentality of Ukrainians, which is changing in the course of their struggle for freedom.
“There are no words that could express my respect and my gratitude to all the people who are fighting for Ukraine, the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Thanks to them, we have the opportunity to do what we love most - to play football on the territory of Ukraine.
Although I am not a Ukrainian, I have so much respect for the Ukrainian people from the very first moment of my contact with people in Lviv, in the "Carpathians", in the western region, where they already had the foundation of Ukrainian patriotism then. Then I also felt it in Dnipro - how much people around me supported me when I was there. Both the eastern and western regions are already thinking with the Ukrainian mentality to go and make this unity stronger.
But absolute gratitude to everyone for the struggle that has been going on for more than 300 days. I am sure that the Ukrainians will not stop until they win. And throughout this process, they make it possible for us to play football. We fight by playing football. We show that life goes on. Playing football, playing with our hearts, we showed the strength of the Ukrainian people to the whole world in the Champions League.
To everyone who congratulated me, I said: how you fight, how you breathe, so we fight. This is the minimum that we wanted to show to all soldiers, to all military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who watched our matches.
It's hard to live, think about sports results, about sports goals, when there is danger, there are daily sirens that prevent you from working because you have to be in cover. And for us, foreigners, this is also an atypical situation, but there are Ukrainian friends around me, and I just feel like one of you.
Many people ask me why I don't leave Ukraine. But this great empathy for Ukrainians makes me one of you. And my family supports me in this.
I want to wish strength to the Ukrainians to endure and win. Forward to victory, Ukraine! And I think that this situation will change the mentality and character of the Ukrainian people. Over time, this character of the military - not to surrender in extreme conditions, not to surrender against an opponent with a much larger, perhaps, resource - will shape the character of the people.
The Ukrainian nation is changing in this war. 100%! The nation is changing, and the nation is made up of people. A nation is formed by people - civilians, military, everyone. And today their mentality is changing. They have a winning mentality. I want to convey a huge hello to all the fans, to all Ukrainians. Glory to Ukraine!” said Jovicevich.