Amid war and upheaval, Ukraine is on precipice of World Cup

The westward journey away from war and toward the 2022 World Cup began early on a Saturday morning in Kyiv. It had been two months since the bombs started falling and the sirens started wailing; since windows shattered and some Ukrainian soccer players sheltered on garage floors. They feared the Russian missiles that seemed to strike incessantly. They huddled in basements, under blankets. They pleaded for peace, then fled for safety, their minds as far as could be from the sport that once paced their lives.

But on April 30, a bus departed Ukrainian soccer headquarters around 8 a.m. It snaked across a devastated country, then through a tranquil one. Some 37 hours later, coaches and players arrived in the Slovenian Alps, where the entire Ukraine men’s national team has since gathered.

Their minds often wander from their improbable quest, to the Russian invasion and the heroes repelling it, but every day, they receive messages from frontline fighters who have “only one demand,” midfielder Taras Stepanenko said.