Oleksandr Zinchenko can recall the one and only visit he made to the local cinema in his hometown of Radomyshl the story of a child being separated from his family and having to fend for himself The plot stuck with him because of the parallels with how he had to navigate a career that looked destined to fail and was only salvaged by going to a place he wishes he had not We know him as a four-time Premier League winner and former Ukrainian Footballer of the Year with 68 caps to his name, but the genesis of the Arsenal left-back’s professional career is a chapter that has remained opaque The visit of his former club Shakhtar Donetsk to the Emirates on Tuesday will be poignant given it is their first competitive match in England since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 but it is against that backdrop his turbulent period between 16 and 18 can be revisited and reassessed It is part of the reason Zinchenko has written his forthcoming autobiography Believe (released on Thursday) with the permission of publisher Bloomsbury we have used to inform this article. There are misconceptions he wishes to address and the Shakhtar match serves as the perfect entry point As his country’s foremost football figure, having spent eight years in the Premier League with Manchester City and Arsenal the public have become used to Zinchenko assuming the mantle of spokesperson Alongside Andriy Shevchenko and president Volodymyr Zelensky a charity match held at Stamford Bridge that raised hundreds of millions of pounds He has donated more than £1million ($1.3m) of his own money stated he would return home to fight if conscripted and criticised former Russian team-mates for not publicly opposing the war He will view Tuesday’s match as an opportunity to remind the Western world that Ukraine still need their support to keep resisting Vladimir Putin’s forces but his boldest intervention came last July at a press conference in New York when he forcefully lobbied Western governments to grant Ukraine access to F16 fighter jets It has won him the respect of Ukrainian fans but the sentiment was not always so complimentary Zinchenko left Shakhtar in 2014 amid a contract stand-off and moved to Russia to pursue a professional career British-Ukrainian Andrew Todos, founder of the Ukrainian football website Zoroya Londonsk, explains how the decision, months after Russia annexed Crimea and took control of the Donbas region comprising the oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk did not sit comfortably with some Ukrainian fans at the time “Zinchenko has never really focused on that part of his career,” he tells The Athletic.  “Whenever it has come up it has been a limited answer so this book will hopefully change the perception as he played in Russia and there were rumours about him getting called up for Russia “Now he has become the player and person he is today especially with the leadership he has shown the last two years The majority understand it wasn’t his fault as he was just a young kid trying to make a career “Ukrainians really appreciate what he does in speaking out against Russia. He’s really articulate and has got the personality to do it. Bournemouth defender Illia Zabarnyi has done some bits but he has nowhere near the following of Zinchenko.” Zinchenko joined Shakhtar’s academy at 13 and was part of a gifted age group that won four successive academy league titles Ten of that team went on to represent Ukraine at under-19 level It was a high success rate but there was to be no path into the first team at Shakhtar for Zinchenko They saw him only as a player to be loaned out and potentially sold on This was months after Shakhtar had reached the last 16 of the Champions League It was a team boosted by a strong Brazilian contingent who had made them all-conquering domestically and a difficult side to break into for a young Ukrainian Zinchenko still had two years to run on his contract but the club were pressuring him to sign an extension that would protect his transfer value He faced an ultimatum: sign or no longer train and play for the under-19 team Zinchenko says he was ostracised and made to run solo laps of the field He felt Shakhtar were making an example of him but he refused to bow to the pressure He remained in limbo and stopped being picked by Ukraine’s national sides Zinchenko loved his time at Shakhtar with under-19s head coach Valeriy Kryventsov but he had to take matters into his own hands He pestered the club analyst to create a file of his best clips and started to send it out to teams all across the world hoping to attract interest that could extract him from this position It coincided with Russia taking parts of eastern Ukraine by force which forced them to relocate 1,200km to Lviv They were handing out Russian passports to citizens in Donetsk and proclaimed it as their territory following a ‘referendum’ that the Ukrainian state called a “farce” Writing now in his autobiography as a 27-year-old husband and father had connections in Russia and felt it was his best chance of securing a professional club so he took his advice and crossed the border Zinchenko believed that any attempt to sign for another Ukrainian club would have been blocked by Shakhtar He felt invisible and so he took a chance on the only place where he sensed a glimmer of hope In early 2015, he had one last roll of the dice. Ufa, a club located 1,000km east of Moscow in the Ural mountains that sit on the border between Europe and Asia, offered to take on Shakhtar. FIFA ruled on their side and a compensation figure of just €5,000 (£4,160 Zinchenko was unknown but made an immediate impression and talk soon centred on the possibility of him gaining Russian citizenship He could then free up a space for another foreign signing but Zinchenko never contemplated it The Ukrainian FA, however, had become aware of the conversation happening in Russian media and moved quickly to secure Zinchenko’s international allegiance, capping the 18-year-old in a Euro 2016 qualifier against Spain as an 88th-minute substitute He was not called up for the next four senior squads but played for the youth team his under-21s manager informed him that a decision had been made that no players based in Russia could play for Ukraine Zinchenko had been so single-minded in searching for any route possible into professional football that he had not considered how the political landscape could affect him This was the first time that the strength of feeling within Ukraine hit home He had been shielded from Donetsk’s reality for almost two years while living in Russia but he now understood his international future relied on him finding a way out of Russia Zenit Saint Petersburg and Manchester City wanted him City had watched him in a youth game against Arsenal three years earlier and added him to the pool of players the emerging talent department was monitoring which The Athletic is told automatically adds all teenagers to the database as soon as they pass a certain number of minutes They had wondered where he had vanished to but when he reappeared on their radar at Ufa they resumed tracking Zenit offered much more money and had a plane waiting to whisk him off but Zinchenko did not care about wages. He wanted to fulfil his dream of playing in the Premier League but, above all, a move to England ensured he would be available to represent Ukraine Zinchenko now has 68 caps and has represented Ukraine at three European Championships There can be no ambiguity about his commitment but having never played senior club football in Ukraine and with almost five years of Covid-19 restrictions and war disruptions affecting crowds and venues he has not been granted many opportunities to win over fans Tuesday offers a rare chance to connect with Ukraine supporters in a context not dominated by the spectre of war. Their Euro 2024 play-off match against Iceland in March was a powerful night of emotion as around 30,000 of Ukraine’s diaspora painted the stadium yellow GO DEEPER Ukraine qualify for Euro 2024: 'The world is going to watch and see we never give up' another example of the nomadic reality many Shakhtar players have to experience for club and country Shakhtar have not played in their home stadium since Russia first invaded the Donbas in 2014 They moved to Lviv and then Kyiv but were displaced further in 2022 moving to neighbouring Poland before returning to Lviv last year That Shakhtar can still travel to London and compete in the Champions League while fielding eight Ukraine internationals The country controls the vast majority of its territory two and a half years on from Russia’s invasion It can be exhausting to shoulder such responsibility on behalf of 38 million people all while attempting to sustain an elite-level football career Zinchenko still loves Shakhtar and wants to return as manager one day both with Manchester City (a 6-0 home win in 2018 and a 3-0 away victory in 2019) but Tuesday will be emotional Zinchenko will feel a sense of victory before a ball has been kicked (Top photos: Getty Images; design: Meech Robinson) each hailing from hometowns affected by the Russian invasion or occupation Among those featured are Real Madrid's Andriy Lunin and Chelsea's Mykhailo Mudryk which has been shelled by the Russian army since the beginning of the war 'Since the beginning of the full-scale war my city has been bombarded with missiles day and night,' says Mudryk My parents continue to build their lives there and always believe in the victory of Ukraine.' The video also shows Arsenal's Oleksandr Zinchenko central defender for Bournemouth from Kyiv Ukrainian wrestler Iryna Koliadenko lost to Japanese Sakura Motoki in the final of the Olympic competition The Ukrainian started the bout more actively and the Japanese wrestler even received a warning for her passive conduct in the fight it was Motoki who took the lead (4:1) with two successful takedowns the Japanese seized the moment and scored two more points she conducted three more effective attacks and won the gold medal the Paris Olympics was the second in her career Iryna Koliadenko is a native of the Zhytomyr region and a graduate of the Radomyshl Children's and Youth Sports School she achieved her first success at the adult level Then she became the vice world champion and finished third at the 2023 World Cup she won three gold medals at the European Championships (2021 She finished the continental competition with a bronze medal once more (2020) She won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics she survived the Russian occupation of the city in 2022 She is a holder of the Order of Princess Olha of the III class "According to preliminary information Ukraine’s Armed Forces  jet fighter destroyed a cruise missile The missile wreckage was scattered around the town," the Radomyshl Town Council posted on Facebook a supersonic plane flew over the town at low altitude Russian president Putin launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on general mobilization While citing and using any materials on the Internet links to the website ukrinform.net not lower than the first paragraph are mandatory citing the translated materials of foreign media outlets is possible only if there is a link to the website ukrinform.net and the website of a foreign media outlet Materials marked as "Advertisement" or with a disclaimer reading "The material has been posted in accordance with Part 3 of Article 9 of the Law of Ukraine "On Advertising" No 1996 and the Law of Ukraine "On the Media" No 2023 and on the basis of an agreement/invoice Online media entity; Media identifier - R40-01421 Why would anybody want to build a new brewery in Kazakhstan It’s not a terribly fair question because the question is loaded Think Berlin – Paris and hardly anybody in between Kazakhstan is a bit like an island market in terms of brewers’ profits shockingly bad if there are several players in the same field beer consumption stands somewhere between 30 and 40 litres per capita it would still be ok for an emerging market But how much higher can beer consumption rise beer consumption is way below 20 litres per capita And this is not for brewers’ lack of wanting or trying Which brings me back to my initial question: why would anybody want to build a new brewery in Kazakhstan I think it becomes a slightly fairer question if you take into consideration that two long-established players have already cornered the beer market: Turkey’s Efes and Carlsberg Together they allegedly control 86 percent of beer production which stood at 4.25 million hl in 2011 Carlsberg has one brewery while Efes has three Efes’ webpage curtly says: “For the present moment the company owns 2 breweries in Almaty region and [one in] Karaganda city.” Do they plan to have another one One of these breweries dropped into their lap when Heineken decided to join forces there with Efes in 2008 and left the management of the Kazakh operations to Efes Now why would Heineken have done such a thing unless they had struggled to continue going alone Denmark’s Carlsberg followed Heineken’s example and in a flash of inspiration merged its Kazakh Derbes Brewing Company with Baltika-Almaty in 2010 the world’s major brewers knew when it was best to apply common sense: if you cannot beat them why anybody would want to build a new brewery in Kazakhstan becomes fairer still if I reveal the location of the new brewery From what I have heard it’s going to be a big brewery The capacity is between 300,000 hl and 500,000 hl That’s what I would call an optimistic capacity Because to run such an operation profitably you will need volume this is what is worrying me: Will Efes and Carlsberg welcome the new kid on the block let’s all be friends and share the spoils” Will they generously relinquish some of their volume to accommodate the newcomer If you remember what I said about island markets above But the point at which my question becomes a really fair question is when you hear that the new brewery is going to be a newly built one the question that should be asked first and foremost is: Who would want to build a new state-of-the-art brewery in a city please and pull back the curtain on Germany’s brewer Oettinger and Russia’s Oasis Group Oettinger is Germany’s major budget beer producer (10 million hl) which does not disclose any financial details has been the pariah of German beer because of its brand’s positioning in the discount segment In the ranking of major German beer brands the Oettinger brand was often ignored with the argument that Oettinger was not really a brand but merely a generic label stuck on its bottles Then there was the not so funny discussion whether Oettinger was a brewery and not just a logistics company with five breweries attached Oettinger self-distributes to the off-trade and ignores the on-trade there is no denying that Oettinger Brewery has become a major player in the German market It brews about 6.8 million hl of its own brand and another 3 million hl of own-label products it exports about 2.6 million hl (all figures for 2011) Managing Director and owner of Oettinger Brewery was not available for comment But he told other news services in July 2012 that the Almaty brewery will go on stream shortly Those who have had a chance to visit Oettinger’s breweries in Germany will confirm that they are really well maintained whose beer costs less than EUR 7 per crate (10 litres) at the point of sale in Germany Assuming that Mr Kollmar has a soft spot for high-tech brewery equipment I would still like to query the wisdom of installing a brand new brewery in Almaty especially as this runs counter to investment practice by the world’s leading brewers when it comes to markets which show similar characteristics to Kazakhstan You may call me a stickler but I think my question is a very fair one: why would anybody want to build a new brewery in Kazakhstan popular Russian tax haven of Cyprus (say media in the Ukraine) which owns beer and beverage companies in the former Soviet republics of Belarus Oasis CIS already has a distribution business currently operating under the name Oasis Kazakhstan So when the new brewery opens these activities will be integrated This does not answer my question why Oasis chose to build a new brewery in Kazakhstan But if you will bear with me for a little longer The German brewer Oettinger and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) are minority shareholders in Oasis CIS The EBRD’s equity investment in Oasis CIS equals a 20 percent stake – again according to Ukrainian media Mr Kollmar told the German Financial Times that he has “a 10 percent stake in Oasis” he published a statement on his website that he does not own a stake in the Moscow Brewing Company (MBC) Those who saw the “correction” scratched their heads Nowhere had Mr Kollmar mentioned MBC in the interview with the German FT The reason he was – presumably – obliged to make this public statement is that there is a separate Oasis company that owns MBC in which neither Oettinger nor EBRD have any stakes But the people behind Oasis and Oasis CIS are the same and they are not newcomers to the Russian beer industry Oasis was established by the co-owners of private equity firm Detroit Investments But only Mr Kashper has an executive post at Oasis where he is chairman of the board In 1998 Mr Kashper and Mr Lifshits began putting together the Ivan Taranov group of breweries – PIT – in Russia with three plants These they sold to Dutch brewer Heineken in 2005 for USD 560 million at an EBITDA multiple of 14 But those were the heady days in Russian brewing when everybody thought that beer consumption would rise … and rise … and rise What strikes me as highly interesting is that Oasis could set up MBC so soon after selling PIT to Heineken MBC went on stream in 2008 with an initial capacity of 2.4 million hl with a total investment of over USD 200 million Given how long it usually takes to plan and build a new brewery Mr Kashper and Mr Lifshits must have already been plotting their comeback to brewing when they pocketed Heineken’s money I would have thought that Heineken would have made them sign a long-term non-compete agreement MBC opened for business just when things in Russia began to turn bad then the government decided to rough up brewers by raising beer duty Not an auspicious time for MBC to get going Sources close to Oettinger say it does 4.2 million hl MBC is probably the most modern brewery in Russia Mospivo and Moskvas plus licensed beer brands such as Oettinger MBC managed to gain traction in the Russian market because its own brands are mainly economy and lower mainstream brands its brand portfolio is best likened to Gondwana: it shifts around All the people I have spoken to agree that Oasis’s real strength lies in sales and distribution That’s perhaps the reason why MBC has managed to increase sales in the much fought over Moscow market despite tough headwinds What has piqued my curiosity is why the Oettinger brand is marketed as a lower mainstream brand You can find bottles of Oettinger for 25 rubles in shops For comparison: a bottle of an international premium beer can retail for anything between 50 and 150 rubles in its country of origin Oettinger is an economy brand But that should not have stopped Mr Kollmar and MBC from going for a much higher positioning in Russia If other German beer brands like Holsten and Löwenbräu I’d venture the guess that Oasis and Mr Kollmar initially chose volume over profits But this leads me to another question: if other brands have managed to nudge up their price positioning from mainstream to premium over the years To press further: why is Oettinger’s volume in Russia still so low despite having been in the market for four years Sources close to Oettinger claim the brand is selling 600,000 hl per year while sources close to MBC say it’s 150,000 hl it may just be an evil rumour spread by his competitors that Mr Kollmar receives a licensing fee of EUR 2 per hl which is very low by international standards Usually royalties per hl range between EUR 5 and EUR 13 (or USD 8 – USD 15) Mr Kollmar may be satisfied with what he – allegedly – earns in royalties as this is about the same amount he is believed to net per hl in Germany Oasis has been industrious in expanding its geographic reach it takes a lawyer or accountant to tell these different corporate takeover vehicles apart) first ventured into Belarus in 2008 From what I could glean from media reports the venture received funds from another prestigious international lender In 2008 the World Bank’s unit IFC took an equity stake in the business and later supported the expansion of the Bobruisk juice plant approximately 150 kilometers south east of capital Minsk Oasis is also involved in brewing in Belarus but I have no confirmed reports whether it owns a brewery there or uses another one to brew its beers as at some stage I just gave up digging around Belarus a country which is neither transparent nor a paragon of free media reporting More interesting is Oasis’ recent – 2011 – entry into the Ukrainian beer market At 30 million hl beer production in 2011 and a per capita consumption of about 60 litres beer the Ukraine ranked as Europe’s sixth largest beer market With the exception of Ukrainian brewer Obolon (32 percent market share) the market is dominated by multinational brewers – Sun InBev (37 percent) Carlsberg Group (28 percent) and Efes (having taken over SABMiller’s operations with a market share of 6 percent) the brewers’ self-attributed market shares don’t add up Which would leave no room for Radomyshl and Persha Pryvatna Brovarnya (First Private Brewery) the latter of which is said to have a 2 percent share of the market It was founded in 2004 and has since become the number five brewer in the Ukraine In 2011 Oasis bought the Radomyshl brewery which had come to international renown thanks to its award-winning wheat beer Etalon The deal also included the Ridna Marka portfolio of juice brands and Radomyshl is a fairly modern 350,000 hl (capacity!) plant located 100 km to the east of the capital Kiev It had fallen on hard times and seen its beer sales crash Although no transaction price was mentioned analysts estimated it to have been below USD 40 million It is widely assumed that Oasis CIS stands a good chance of buying the rest of First Private Brewery eventually Already in April 2012 Oasis and First Private brewery consolidated their assets without giving further details In a next step Oasis might try to go after brewer Obolon whose finances in recent years are said to have been wobbly Obolon might be willing to succumb to an offer from a “Russian” bidder like Oasis the political power brokering behind Obolon is hard to fathom For Oasis CIS the task at hand is to revive Radomyshl It will do that with the help of the Oettinger brand which in the Ukraine is also positioned in the economy segment It retails at 5.30 Ukrainian hryvnia (EUR 0.53) per bottle and slightly above Obolon beer at 4 hryvnia (EUR 0.40) per bottle Given Oasis’ sales and distribution strength its chances are good Maybe they will find it a tad difficult to sway the Ukrainian consumers towards buying Oettinger consumers are much more brand loyal than in Russia and content themselves with a fairly limited choice of brands Considering the heavy amount of gossip floating around the industry (so thick you could actually scoop it up and sell it as fertilizer) Oasis is a force to be reckoned with in Russia and its adjoining markets Its founders have shown a deft hand at planning their moves right from the start Oasis has brought Oettinger Brewery on board because it needed a volume booster brand in the economy segment It would have also appreciated Mr Kollmar’s technical expertise If anybody knows how to produce beer in the most cost-efficient fashion That a Russian company can save on taxes if it has a German partner might have made Oasis even keener to get Oettinger on its side Judging from its founders’ previous history I would not have thought that Oasis is in for the long-haul Once it has turned its Ukrainian venture around and dug in its heels in both Russia and Kazakhstan I can immediately think of two brewers: Molson Coors and Heineken Molson Coors earlier this year bought the central European brewer StarBev Heineken would certainly eye MBC not least since adding it to its Russian business would give it a well-run brewery and some market share Having been relegated to number four brewer in Russia as a consequence of the SABMiller-Efes tie-up Heineken would not let such a chance slip it by To get back to my question as to why anybody would want to build a brewery in Kazakhstan: the answer is Investing in Kazakhstan would be an elegant way of transferring profits out of Russia Should the Kazakh venture prove successful eventually the buyer could just pack up the brewery and move it elsewhere that’s what they mean when they talk about a win-win all the way to the bank Kazakhstan is basically a beer market duopoly shared by Efes and Carlsberg Russia Newsletter archive and information Posted by oipainternational | Feb 22 900 kg of pet food has been purchased and delivered to 4 regions feeding more than 1000 cats: Kharkiv: 200 kg distributed to two shelters Gaisin: 150 kg distributed to two shelters Our member league is now working on the organization and delivery of feed in Kyiv region to three shelters and the staff is looking for transport for a shelter in Pervomaisk Mykolaiv region to deliver other 10 bags of food Together with our partner Happy Paw this month we helped Evgeny’s cat family Evgeny is a military man and a “dad” of 40 cats His black panther pride started with 3 kittens rescued from the street and the oldest cats are already 12 years old Evgeny tried to find a new home for some of the cats since then all his “children” have been with him: “I cannot allow my kittens to suffer I take time off from work whenever possible I experienced and saw many hard things in the army but cats helped me to overcome depression and brought me back to life Thanks to Happy Paw and your ongoing donations for the campaign “Emergency Ukraine” in February we supported 6 more shelters by purchasing over 1.1 ton of pet food delivered to Berezan Write as note“Emergency Ukraine” and add the exact amount Account Holder:OIPA – Organizzazione Internazionale Protezione Animali Bank details:IBAN: IT 93 I 03069 09620 100000002326SWIFT/BIT Code: BCITITMM​ Bank’s Name and Address:Banca Popolare Commercio e IndustriaAgency MILAN-BOCCHETTOVIA BOCCHETTO Account Holder: OIPA - Organizzazione Internazionale Protezione Animali Write as note “Donation to OIPA” and the exact amount Bank’s Name and Address: Banca Intesa San Paolo - Agency MILAN-BOCCHETTOVia Bocchetto 13/15 - 20123 Milan (Italy) Bank detailsBIC: BCITITMMIBAN: IT 93 I 03069 09620 100000002326 Write as note “Donation to OIPA" and the exact amount E-mail: international@oipa.org Certified mail:oipa@pec.oipa.org OIPA International Organization For Animal Protection Tax ID code: 97310380155 NGO associated with the UN Department of Global Communications (DGC) the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and accredited at UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) Accredited in the Register of Representatives of Interest of the European Commission OIPA Italia Guardie Zoofile Appelli per gli animali Medici Internazionali LIMAV Ricerca senza animali Bomboniere solidali appeals and victories?Subscribe to our newsletter Related Topics: Moscow, Ukraine, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Cheshire, Vitaliy Mykolenko, Radomyshl, Crimea, Premier League Football fans were left in tears last night after Ukrainian player Oleksandr Zinchenko embraced fellow countryman Vitaliy Mykolenko in an emotional show of support for their country in the wake of Russia's invasion But the touching move was unsurprising from Zinchenko, 25, whose own remarkable journey to the Premier League club saw him flee to Moscow as a teenager after Russia's invasion of Crimea. Now a top midfielder on a reported salary of £20,000 a week, he's come along way from the days of struggling to buy food as he played on concrete pitches for a non-league teams Last night he joined the rest of his Manchester City squad in wearing shirts with the words 'no war' across the front and back and attended a vigil with his teary wife Vlada Shcheglova, a stunning TV presenter and journalist who is also a Ukrainian national. Ritesh Pathak Author follow us on whatsappfollow us on telegramfollow us on InstagramUkraine is going through an existential crisis at the moment as it is at war with its neighboring country Russia Every citizen of the country is suffering due to unwanted trouble Even the people living away from the country are worried about their loved ones residing there including sportspeople Many footballers are currently taking part in different leagues across the globe They are also feeling the impact of the crisis going on back in their home these players look for empathy from the people around them Oleksandr Zinchenko was lucky to get in a big amount as he took the field against Everton in the Premier League clash got support from his teammates as well as opponents before the start of the game How has the Russia-Ukraine Crisis impacted world of sports? Born in the Ukrainian city of Radomyshl and having played 48 times as a full international for his country Zinchenko was overwhelmed to see such a gesture from everyone and could not control his emotions The young footballer burst into tears while everyone showed their love and support for Zinchenko as well as the nation of Ukraine as a whole The City man was moved to see his teammates lined up in ‘No War’ t-shirts while Ukrainian flags and iconography were on display around all four corners of Goodison Park Amid a huge sensitive moment going on with Ukraine the footballing world is doing its best to support the continent The country is receiving unconditional love and support from everyone the Man United vs Watford clash also saw the players showing their support for the country Players from both teams were also seen displaying a banner depicting the word ‘peace’ in multiple languages before their Premier League clash at Old Trafford earlier on Saturday while Ukraine is at war with its one neighbor there has been outpouring love from another Poland's football team has shown some big heart to come up with the decision to boycott Russia They have declared that they will boycott their upcoming FIFA World Cup play-off against Russia with everyone from Robert Lewandowski to Wojciech Szczęsny releasing passionate statements UEFA Champions League final moved to Paris from Saint Petersburg amid Russia-Ukraine war How can Delhi Capitals qualify for IPL 2025 playoffs after rain washes out match against Sunrisers Hyderabad? SRH vs DC IPL 2025 Highlights: Rain halts chase after Delhi score 133/7; SRH crash out of playoffs It stinks: Tim Paine hits back at handling of Kagiso Rabada's suspension I was supposed to go for Euro 2020 with Italy: Raphinha reveals shocking story Manchester City player on the atrocities back home and his frustration with former teammates in Russia who do not speak out Fri 15 Apr 2022 21.00 CESTLast modified on Wed 20 Apr 2022 16.35 CESTShareUkrainians do not have the luxury of shielding themselves from bad news “I can’t live outside this situation,” Oleksandr Zinchenko says “Trying to follow everything is basically my life now The first thing I do every day is reach for my phone It’s been more than seven weeks now and you can see some people starting to forget starting to adapt to the brutality in my country I hate the people who invaded our land more and more and more every day because the whole world has to know the truth.” Read more“Not even the Russian soldiers can understand why they came,” he says Why would you try and fight a guy who has been hiding in a bunker for nearly two months already and I can’t even call them people because there are no words for them don’t have any idea what their purpose is.” One of the most profound frustrations for Zinchenko is that so many in Russia are unwilling to react and condemn Early in his career he spent two years in the country and made friendships that he thought would persist But he has been let down by too many people whose support has only reached so far but now it has reduced almost to nothing,” he says The guys I know called me as soon as the invasion happened but we can’t do anything.’ Of course you can If you stay silent it means you support what is happening in Ukraine right now because we see pictures on social media of Russians being taken to prison if they protest if all of them posted something on Instagram at the same time saying: ‘Guys we need to stop it,’ they would all be arrested And it’s such a shame that they say nothing.” Football itself plays barely any part in this conversation: we are here so that Zinchenko one of three Ukrainian footballers in the Premier League alongside West Ham’s Andriy Yarmolenko and Vitalii Mykolenko of Everton can make his point about the tragedy unfolding in their homeland that present colleagues offer unstinting support as are Pep Guardiola and the rest of the club’s staff and one touch was particularly appreciated When they played at Peterborough on 1 March Zinchenko’s first outing since Russia’s aggression commenced he was made captain; the emotions were hard to keep in check as the away end Ukraine flags displayed from one side to the other View image in fullscreenManchester City fans show their support for Oleksandr Zinchenko during an FA Cup tie Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian“My eyes were in tears,” he says “I can’t explain exactly what I felt inside but they come up to me and ask how the situation is and how I am.” Is it really possible to concentrate on his career He remains an important part of City’s potentially all-conquering squad but nobody would blame him for wavering I’m still thinking about Ukraine and our people and it’s the thing I am managing to enjoy the most so I’m trying to focus on it when I’m playing and at the beginning it was almost impossible The men went to the army and were ready to fight with anything they hadZinchenko was born in Radomyshl a city of about 15,000 inhabitants 60 miles west of Kyiv It has a smart landscape park and a famous collection of Ukrainian religious icons from the past 500 years He lived there until he was 11 and describes people who are “so kind Most have stayed put amid the trauma; they are in good health as things stand and it leaves him in awe were ready to fight with anything they had They weren’t going to give up anything: it’s their land “I was told Russian troops were trying to go through Radomyshl and were hiding in the woods kill them and take everything they had,” he says “People can read in the news that Russian troops left the Kyiv region and everything is safe there There are still air strikes and you have to be careful in case they regroup or replan But everyone is ready to fight for the place they were born in.” View image in fullscreenA church in the Ukrainian city of Malyn is partially destroyed after being bombed by Russian aircraft Photograph: Miguel A Lopes/EPAAlmost due east are Irpin and Bucha whose hell has been the worst publicly documented so far comes up that Zinchenko’s emotions run loosest He knows those streets; that area; these people I cannot even begin to describe how I feel about them for everything they have done to the Ukrainian people and Ukraine And I hate the people in Russia who are trying to convince others that this is propaganda The bodies of our dead civilians were lying on the ground for two weeks They have to take responsibility for this.” and the invaders are attempting to erase not only the Ukrainian state but the idea of being Ukrainian to the reality of Vladimir Putin’s actions is at best excruciating “You’ve got people over 50 or 60 who just watch the same TV programme that lies to you over a period of years,” he says “I’ve seen videos with journalists asking Russian civilians: ‘Do you support what your president is doing?’ They answer: ‘Yes of course we’re on his side.’ And when they’re asked about how they will cope with sanctions And how can a country like this possibly function I’ve seen figures saying more than 70% of Russians support this disaster “But that’s the difference between Ukraine and Russia I’ve heard a lot of people think that we are essentially the same as them But that’s not remotely true and you can see the difference between us now and that will be the same when we rebuild our country.” Zinchenko is trying to help his compatriots and has joined the “World Sports for Ukraine” project alongside a number of other players. One of his shirts is being auctioned to raise money and other efforts are being made “It’s not just online or social media,” he says of the work he and his fellow expat footballers throughout Europe are doing “We can send a lot of things to Ukrainian people finishing with the hospitality of people who are coming here.” View image in fullscreenOleksandr Zinchenko reacts to Ukraine’s victory over Sweden at Euro 2020 but says June’s World Cup playoff against Scotland is not yet in his thoughts Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty ImagesLike many Ukrainians Zinchenko wants to thank the UK government and Boris Johnson for their assistance “The fact he came to Kyiv was a good signal for us,” he says “But I’d like to ask as well for him to do something else for the refugees how we can make sure more people can come over here for help The request is couched in genuine gratitude but there is also a belief that Europe in general should go further “Countries need to stop buying Russian gas and oil; they’re just investing in the war that way It’s important to isolate Russia from everything “I posted things on Instagram about stopping Russian sport I’m not wishing their footballers to stop playing in the Champions League and things like that but the more sanctions they are given the more it might push people there to speak out and say: ‘OK In June, Zinchenko will represent Ukraine in their rescheduled World Cup playoff against Scotland. The country’s football scene has largely ground to a halt, although Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk have begun playing fundraising matches abroad and while qualification for Qatar would be a remarkable achievement in the circumstances it has yet to become a serious thought “The main question now is to save our country,” he says “I don’t think anyone thinks about Ukrainian football now just their families and how to make things better It would seem an apt way to end but Zinchenko does not want to tie things up in a bow; that is not how this horror works for anybody The way to finish an enervating series of thought processes is to reiterate his original message ‘I’m not going to say something because I can’t change anything’ then that is a massive “The alternative is that you will just let this continue You don’t just have to speak about what is happening to Ukraine: you have to scream about it.” '#' : location.hash;window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUQuery = location.search === '' && location.href.slice(0 location.href.length - window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash.length).indexOf('?') !== -1 '?' : location.search;if (window.history && window.history.replaceState) {var ogU = location.pathname + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUQuery + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash;history.replaceState(null "\/features\/oleksandr-zinchenko\/?__cf_chl_rt_tk=jFrISh_Rpj1WmsbpsX3.dhzaYQrH6rr38hgJ1yVkVzM-1746483976-1.0.1.1-J7TvyXNeErWRkYrMc44ZxJlKXG_tWqlnWRMDB0GkIrE" + window._cf_chl_opt.cOgUHash);cpo.onload = function() {history.replaceState(null ogU);}}document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(cpo);}()); Everything you need to know about Arsenal's defensive leader Oleksandr Zinchenko is a Ukrainian professional footballer who currently plays as a left-back for Premier League club Arsenal and the Ukraine national team He began playing football at a young age and joined the youth academy of Shakhtar Donetsk when he was just six years old Zinchenko moved to Russia to play for FC Ufa He made his professional debut for the club in July of that year and went on to make 31 appearances for the team over two seasons he signed for Manchester City for a reported fee of £1.7m but was initially loaned out to Dutch club PSV Eindhoven for the 2016-17 season He helped PSV win the Eredivisie title that season Zinchenko returned to Manchester City in 2017 and impressed Pep Guardiola with his versatility and ball-playing attributes He racked up 128 appearances for the Manchester giants in all competitions playing primarily as a left-back but also occasionally filling in as a midfielder Zinchenko won numerous trophies with Manchester City He also helped the team reach the final of the UEFA Champions League in 2021-22 he was limited to a bit-part role towards the end of his City career The Ukrainian defender left the Sky Blues in search of regular playing time in the summer of 2022 Arsenal didn't think twice about spending £35m to lure him away from the Etihad Stadium He has been nothing short of remarkable since reuniting with head coach Mikel Arteta at the Emirates and has helped transform the way the Gunners play leading their charge in an engrossing Premier League title-race against his former club The 26-year-old is also a mainstay leader at the Ukrainian national team He made his debut for the team in 2015 and has since earned over 50 caps He played a key role in helping Ukraine reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Euro 2020 scoring a crucial goal in the team's round of 16 win over Sweden defeat against Wales in the qualifying playoff meant Zinchenko and his international teammates fell short of making it to the Qatar World Cup Zinchenko has obviously enjoyed a trophy-laden football career so far but what are some of the fun facts you absolutely have to know about the defender In Zhytomyr region, fragments of an enemy missile were found in a field, and an unexploded cruise missile was found in the forest. About this informs Zhytomyr region police the wreckage of the rocket was found by local residents in a field near one of the villages of the Brusyliv community rescuers in the forest of the Radomyshl community came across a Russian cruise missile that did not explode Rescuers took measures to safely neutralize the ammunition.  "Investigative and operational groups of police officers worked at all the scenes of the events Law enforcement officers recorded the necessary information for further investigation of the circumstances of war crimes"- noted in the police У вас нет аккаунта? Создать аккаунт Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications Oleksandr Zinchenko's £32 million switch to Arsenal ends a remarkable, trophy-laden spell at Manchester City but continues an inspirational journey where other kids wouldn't pass to him at the local football academy as a youngster he ended up spending six years at Shakhtar Donetsk Zinchenko captained Shakhat's Under 19 side and things were progressing well he and his family were forced to leave the country in 2014 It meant Zinchenko was without a club for five months and following a contract dispute and a period where he was training in the streets of Moscow by himself he ended up signing for Russian side FC Ufa and began his professional career there Zinchenko played 33 times for Ufa before City snapped him up for £1.7 million in 2016, just a day after Pep Guardiola was unveiled as manager Loaned out to PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands for a season he looked destined to be a player City would sell for a bit of profit without him ever playing a competitive game he ended up forcing his way into Guardiola's plans as a makeshift left-back Even deciding to fight for his place when Wolves came in for him a couple of years back, Zinchenko went on to make 128 appearances and win ten trophies - including four Premier League titles. he had to deal with the war going on in his country following the invasion from Vladimir Putin and Russia Zinchenko was extremely vocal about the conflict and went above and beyond to help people back home He showed tremendous strength and put in a game-changing 45 minute cameo on the last day of the season as City came from 2-0 down against Aston Villa to retain the title at the Etihad Afterwards, he celebrated his club’s title win by draping the Premier League trophy in the Ukraine flag while bursting into tears in a poignant moment The 25-year-old became a real fan favourite at City and leaves with all the best wishes in his new chapter at Arsenal where he is reunited with Mikel Arteta and former teammate Gabriel Jesus "Signing for Manchester City changed my life, and I will always be grateful for the opportunity they gave me," Zinchenko told the official Manchester City website "It’s a special club and this has been a special period To have won 10 trophies is incredible and I am immensely proud of everything we have achieved together." In an interview with The Telegraph Zinchenko was asked what it takes to make a footballer and he gave the perfect response when he replied Topics: Oleksandr Zinchenko, Manchester City, Arsenal, Ukraine Josh is a sports journalist who specialises in football and wrestling He provides coverage of professional wrestling and has interviewed some of the biggest names in the field - including the first UK interview with The Hardy Boyz after their return to WWE He has never sported a pair of Lonsdale Slip-ons