Yesterday, April 13, in the evening, the third scorer in the history of the national championships of Ukraine in football unexpectedly turned out to be among the hockey players. And in Budapest. Yevgeny Seleznev visited the Obuda Hockey Academy, where he holds a training camp, preparing for the world championship in division 1A, the youth team of Ukraine.
The team manager is Yevgeny's longtime friend, team manager and holder of all possible records in the national hockey championship Sergei Babinets. Seleznev took the time to chat with a friend, inspire young hockey players with his own words, and after that he also gave this interview. In Ukrainian, and even with the use of the Transcarpathian dialect.
“I ended up abroad, like many Ukrainians helping the military, doing volunteer work,” says Yevhen. — I left Uzhgorod, where I now live, for volunteer help. And at the same time, he took his son, who plays hockey in Vienna, in the same school with Stepan Gerasimenko, forward of the youth national team of Ukraine, by the way. In Budapest on the way. When I found out that our team was here, I couldn't help but come. It doesn't matter if they are hockey players, football players, basketball players. The main thing is that ours. I have friends everywhere. In this case, I am more glad to see Buba (Babinets - author).
- Have you known each other for a long time?
- We met in 2010-2011, when I played for Shakhtar, and Sergiy - for Donbass. In Donesk. Hockey players went to our matches, we went to them. We were then in the same company with Sergey Varlamov, Dmitry Isaenko. Celebrated together. “Hocheychiki” then “twisted” so much that I still “twist” it (laughs). Since then we've been friends.
- Babinets, announcing his return to hockey after almost a year's pause last fall, offered you a challenge through social networks: who will soon break the performance record in the hockey and football championships. As a result, Babinets coped with the task, but you still didn’t score a single goal and have now ended your career...
- Unfortunately yes. The time will come, I will definitely give a big interview that will sum up my entire career. I'll tell you what happened and how it all happened. This will happen after my farewell match, which I plan to hold in Uzhgorod. There I will gather people with whom I played together and against whom I played - Yarmolenko, Mudryk, Shaparenko, Rakitsky, and many others. I will call a very good company there. I hope my hockey friends will come - Varlam, Buba. Of course, this match will be charitable.
In the meantime, I finished because I stopped getting pleasure from THIS football. Or rather, not football, but near football. I see no point in being where there is no game, but some kind of games are going on. That's not mine. I think that you can’t insult the guys, treat them not like people. I will tear them all apart when I give the interview I mentioned above. These are rogues.
— You said that your son plays hockey. Successfully?
- Ruslan - born in 2007, he started playing hockey in the Dnipro, then was in the Kyiv "Ice", went to Slovakia, but did not stay there. Now he trains and performs in Vienna, for the Ice Hawks club. In Europe, Vyacheslav Zavalnyuk (former defender of the Ukrainian national hockey team - author) helped him get settled. Let's see what happens.
— You also seem to play hockey.
— Rather, I suffer, it’s hard to call it a game. I score goals, but I skate badly. As it is. You can't drink away mastery.
“Zheka is very low key,” Sergey Babinets joins the conversation. - We played together. He's doing well.
— Just yesterday I rode. But not for long, because the knees at a low landing are disturbing. However, I like to play. In Uzhgorod, there is no opportunity to constantly go out on the ice, but sometimes we are going to. It was easier in Kyiv. There he trained with Kiev Lavra, along with Oleg Shafarenko (former forward of the Ukrainian national hockey team and coach of Kiev Sokol in 2020-2022 - author), and other well-known players. Actually, I started skating for the first time, it seems, back in 2008 in Donetsk.
- Evgeny, let's move away from sports and continue the topic that you raised at the beginning of the conversation. You spoke about volunteering in the context of a big war that has been going on for more than a year. Has the war changed your mind?
- Mine and all other Ukrainians. What Russia has done is incomprehensible. These are nonhumans. Animals are not capable of this. Nothing else to say. Oh, I didn’t notice how I spoke in Transcarpathian.
- Until February 24, 2022, you belonged to those people who were loyal to Russia ...
- This is conditional loyalty, since I am from Makiivka in the Donetsk region, people close to me still remain there. I always understood what was happening, but I still harbored the illusion that something could be negotiated. February 24, 2022 is the point of no return. After Mariupol, Irpen, Bucha, Dnieper, Zaporozhye, Kyiv, Zhitomir, there is no forgiveness for the aggressors. I can only say that now I sincerely admire what our soldiers are doing in Bakhmut. These are heroes. And these monsters, excuse me, to x ... I'm honored to talk so much about them.
- When was the last time you were in Donetsk or your native Makeyevka?
- At the beginning of 2014, that is, before the war. Since then, I have not risked driving. I was warned that they would shoot me if they met me there.
Ivan VERBITSKY