It's late within the second interval of recreation 4 of the Ukrainian nationwide hockey championship on April 2, and the upstart Kyiv Capitals, solely in its second season, leads towards established Hockey Membership (HC) Kremenchuk and its star-studded roster.
The Capitals captain, Serhii Chernenko, steals the puck and sends it behind the web to his teammate, a second earlier than Kremenchuk ahead Vladyslav Braha slams him towards the boards.
The ref blows his whistle, but it surely’s not for a penalty. An air raid alert signaling a possible Russian assault brings the high-stakes recreation to a halt, a stark reminder of Russia’s warfare occurring exterior the rink. Followers file exterior the Kremenchuk Iceberg Area in Poltava Oblast, a 5 hour drive south of Kyiv, stretching their legs and ready for the specter of ballistic missiles to abide.
Taking part in ice hockey in Ukraine at present is in contrast to competing in every other hockey league worldwide. Moreover the sport interruptions, the game closely depends on civilian infrastructure: No ice rink, no hockey.
Ice rinks haven't escaped Russia’s marketing campaign to bombard Ukrainian civilian websites. From 2022 to 2024, 725 sports activities amenities have been broken or destroyed in Ukraine. A few of Ukraine’s most celebrated ice rinks lie in ruins.
Rinks additionally require electrical energy for refrigeration and are more difficult to construct – and rebuild – than amenities for many different sports activities. Russia has broken greater than 63,000 vitality infrastructure amenities up to now three years, in line with the Vitality Ministry, resulting in long-term blackouts notably throughout winter months.
The affect of warfare on Ukrainian hockey is embodied by the banners hanging from the rafters over Kremenchuk’s Iceberg Area, the place the logos of solely 5 skilled groups are represented on this 12 months’s skilled league.
Lacking is the powerhouse workforce HC Donbas, winner of 5 of the earlier six Ukrainian hockey championships earlier than the unfinished 2022 season was interrupted by Russia’s full-scale invasion. HC Mariupol can also be lacking, whose brand-new dwelling ice rink was unveiled by President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2020 and had “superb” ice, gamers who skated there recall. HC Kramatorsk, who performed one full season of their yellow, black, and white uniforms earlier than Russian troops abruptly ended their second, can also be absent.
All three groups had been primarily based in Donetsk Oblast, the place Moscow now controls greater than 70% of the territory. Heavy Russian assaults blanket the remaining 30%.
It was towards this backdrop that Kyiv Capitals CEO Anastasia Zimina and her father, former hockey participant Eugene Zimin, determined to create and fund a brand new workforce in early 2023. It took about six months, she estimates, to go from concept to actuality.
“We had no plans earlier than the warfare in any way” to kind a brand new workforce, Zimina tells the Kyiv Impartial. When it was clear that Russia was attempting to erase Ukrainian folks and tradition, establishing a brand new workforce felt like one method to “defy” a historic sample of cultural losses throughout warfare and have one thing to develop as an alternative, she stated. “The principle concept was to provide again and restore Ukraine by way of sports activities.”
The story of the Kyiv Capitals is extra than simply one among a workforce born throughout warfare, with gamers who’ve survived Russian occupation and practices held on melting ice, at the hours of darkness, after Russian missiles knocked out town’s energy.
It’s the story of a workforce enjoying with such vitality that after the puck drops, it’s not in regards to the warfare — it’s in regards to the workforce, it’s in regards to the ice, it’s about Capitals’ ahead Sevastian Karpenko slapping the puck previous the goalie’s proper hip six minutes into additional time at their dwelling rink, and the standing-room-only crowd cheering so loudly that you may really feel the constructing vibrate by way of the cement sidewalk exterior.
From ponds to the worldwide stage: A century of Ukrainian hockey
The primary Ukrainian ice hockey match happened greater than 100 years in the past, on a pond rink in Lviv in 1905. Spectators unfamiliar with the game drank sizzling tea and mead and “appreciated what they noticed,” in line with a information report from the time.
In 1910, Ukrainian professor Ivan Bobersky revealed the primary Ukrainian-language guidelines of ice hockey. The primary native championship, held in 1926, concerned eight Lviv-based groups, together with two Jewish golf equipment. The victor was Pohon, profitable 3:1 towards Charny.
Like a lot of Ukrainian tradition, ice hockey suffered when the Soviet Military took over components of Europe throughout World Warfare II. In a single dramatic incident in 1940, Soviet troops occupied an space in present-day Chernivtsi Oblast, which was, on the time, an ice hockey hub and a part of Romania. The native gamers had been labeled “nationalist bourgeoisie” after defeating the Purple Military’s workforce a number of instances, forcing many of the athletes to to migrate to evade arrest. Different groups additionally dissolved or had been renamed.
Nonetheless, Ukrainians continued to play ice hockey and produce world-class athletes. By the Nineteen Fifties, the Ukrainian SSR hockey league was among the many best within the Soviet Union.
After the Soviet Union fell in 1991, Ukrainians additionally made a reputation for themselves globally by enjoying within the Nationwide Hockey League and European leagues. Ruslan Fedotenko and Dmitri Khristich are amongst Ukrainian NHL gamers who’ve gained the Stanley Cup. One of many all-time best hockey gamers, Wayne Gretzky, has Ukrainian ancestors.
A sport and nation beneath assault
When the Kyiv Capitals provided workforce captain Chernenko a spot, he didn’t know what to anticipate from a workforce with no monitor file. “I and the teaching workers most likely had some doubts, however the whole lot labored out fantastic,” he stated.
Chernenko, probably the most skilled participant on the workforce at 41, first laced up his skates at six years outdated, when his father walked him and his older brother to an ice rink a couple of minutes from his childhood dwelling in Kyiv.
He represented Ukraine on the worldwide stage a number of instances as a part of the youth nationwide workforce earlier than enjoying on the nation’s 2011 nationwide workforce, which gained bronze on the D1 World Championship. He later performed on Romanian groups earlier than returning to play in Ukraine.
On the ice, Chernenko is a playmaker, targeted on discovering open gamers and disrupting defenders, racking up 23 assists and 7 objectives within the common season. His self-discipline and expertise lead some to view him virtually as an additional coach, and he can usually be seen mentoring teammates on and off the ice.
"Arenas are destroyed. There are fewer groups, and so, fewer gamers. Kids are unable to take part."
Serhii Chernenko, the captain of the Kyiv Capitals, sits for a portrait on the Shalett ice rink in Kyiv, Ukraine on April 10, 2025. (Chris Jones / The Kyiv Impartial)
With a long time of hockey expertise, Chernenko has watched how the nation’s competitiveness has suffered beneath assault.
“Ukraine was as soon as within the prime division, there was a number of competitors, and there have been sturdy gamers. They performed overseas and inside the nation,” remembers Chernenko. “Then, warfare. Arenas are destroyed. There are fewer groups, and so, fewer gamers. Kids are unable to take part.”
Any skilled Ukrainian hockey participant can rattle off the names of the destroyed arenas.
The primary to go was Druzhba in Donetsk, ransacked and torched by armed militants through the Donbas Warfare in March 2014. HC Donbas was pressured to relocate from the rink to the Altair Ice Area in Druzhkivka, additionally positioned in Donetsk Oblast.
Then the full-scale invasion started, and that rink, too, was destroyed by a Russian X-55 cruise missile.
Over the course of the warfare, rinks in Mariupol, Sieverskodonetsk, Kherson, and three rinks in Kharkiv — together with an Olympic coaching base that hosted two hockey groups — have additionally been ruined by shelling or occupation.
Because the full-scale invasion, the variety of skilled hockey groups in Ukraine has halved.
“For the extent (of competitors) to develop, we want the arenas which were destroyed. We hope that they are going to be rebuilt,” Chernenko stated.
‘The issue is folks and youngsters are leaving’
An much more threatening challenge, say gamers, is the expertise that has left. Ukraine’s inhabitants has fallen by an estimated 10 million since 2022 as Ukrainians flee the warfare overseas or are killed.
Not solely is Ukraine missing the important thing hockey-playing demographic of fighting-age younger males — it’s additionally quick on the following era of up-and-coming gamers.
“Lots of youngsters have left. Lots,” says Kyiv Capitals Sports activities Director Oleg Grushetsky. The Kryzhynka hockey faculty, he notes, a youth program that companions with and shares a rink with the Capitals in Kyiv, enrolled round 350 youngsters earlier than the full-scale invasion. At the moment, it’s dropped right down to 122.
Roughly 60% of Ukraine’s hockey-playing youth have been pressured to desert their houses, estimates Ukrainian Hockey Dream, a charity that helps youth hockey.
Ukraine as soon as boasted one of many prime youth hockey boarding colleges in Europe, positioned in Donbas. The aggressive program attracted gamers from exterior Ukraine who lived collectively and went to highschool collectively, coaching in hockey earlier than and after courses.
“We had the whole lot. I hadn’t seen something prefer it anyplace else in Ukraine,” says Mykyta Oliynyk, a rising left-handed ahead on the Capitals workforce who skilled there from ages 13 to 16. “It was at a really excessive stage. There have been many foreigners, guys from Russia and Moldova.”
When he was 16, the warfare in Donbas started, and Oliynyk left the varsity to finish his coaching in Kharkiv, the place he grew up. “I’m fortunate that I had someplace to go,” he says.
Oliynyk, 26, led the Ukrainian league final 12 months for probably the most assists within the Capitals’ inaugural season. His skating abilities and velocity level to top-tier coaching, which sports activities director Grushetsky attributes largely to his expertise on the now-closed Donbas Academy.
“The issue at present is individuals are leaving, kids are leaving,” says Grushetsky. “I see the primary mission of this complete mission — all of this, our Ukrainian hockey — is to create situations to maintain folks right here and persuade them to return.”
Attracting expertise from overseas
Recruiting overseas gamers is hard however not unattainable.
One of many quickest gamers on the ice is Sam Hu, a Canadian-Chinese language ahead who beforehand performed within the Kontinental Hockey League and East Coast Hockey League. He joined the workforce with simply two months left within the season however has already change into one of many standout gamers, outskating defenders on three-to-one breakaways.
Hu was searching for a brand new alternative when a former coach related him with the Capitals, making him the workforce’s fourth worldwide participant.
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He had by no means stepped foot in Ukraine earlier than the workforce introduced him on board however finds himself “proud and impressed” by the resilience of the folks he’s met.
When requested whether or not he hesitated to return to Ukraine through the warfare as different overseas gamers have, he replies, “To be trustworthy, I wasn’t pondering an excessive amount of about anything. I simply thought of the hockey.”
The model in Ukraine is extra free-flowing than in different leagues he’s competed in, he says, with much less emphasis on set performs and star performers. “It’s not as system-oriented as another locations I’ve performed. When it’s just a little extra unpredictable, it may be just a little extra thrilling.”
“I’ve not had this a lot enjoyable coming to the rink in most likely 5 or 6 years,” Hu provides. “Lots of it’s how the gamers deal with one another. There’s a great tradition on this workforce.”
‘Russians, we did it’
When the Kyiv Capitals make it to the playoffs towards Odesa Storm on March 15, simply over a dozen loyal followers make the journey to the sport in Odesa, round 274 miles (441 kilometers) from Kyiv. On the official recreation livestream, you may hear them chant a three-beat rhythm of “Ca-pi-tals.”
Amongst them are Albina Shatokhina and Maria Filinchuk, two teenage determine skaters who by no means miss a house recreation and practice on the identical rink because the Capitals.
“Everybody ought to perceive that it is vitally troublesome to coach now due to the air raids and blackouts,” Shatokhina tells the Kyiv Impartial later in Kyiv. “Regardless of the warfare, they’re nonetheless coaching and attempting to enhance Ukrainian hockey.”
“And it’s working,” Filinchuk provides. “Lots of people have gotten to know this workforce final season.”
With the sport tied and three minutes left, Capitals ahead Andrii Kryvonozhkin wrestles the puck free behind Odesa’s internet. He passes it to Oliynyk, who rapidly passes by way of the Odesa defenders to Karpenko for a one-tap aim. The Kyiv followers erupt into cheers over what would be the game-winning aim, clinching the workforce a spot within the finals. When the buzzer sounds, the remainder of the workforce pours onto the ice in celebration.
“The one factor price remembering is Russians did all this.”
Three days later, Russia pronounces that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump have mentioned organizing ice hockey video games between the 2 international locations — extensively seen as a political concession to Russia. Russia and Belarus have been banned since 2022 from competing in worldwide hockey competitions over the invasion of Ukraine.
The highlight on the intersection of politics and ice hockey has solely intensified in current weeks due to the opposite Capitals — the Washington D.C. workforce enjoying on the opposite facet of the globe.
After Washington Capitals participant Alexander Ovechkin surpassed Wayne Gretzky’s file of 894 objectives scored within the NHL on April 6, Ovechkin’s public friendship with Putin sparked headlines and criticism from Ukrainians and pro-Ukrainian NHL followers. The Russian participant celebrated his victory, cheering, “Russians, we did it.” Russia’s propaganda machine rapidly seized on the assertion, echoing it throughout state tv and pro-war social media channels.
The Kyiv Capitals Telegram channel responded by posting a video pairing his celebration with images of Ukrainian sports activities stadiums lowered to rubble, including, “The one factor price remembering is Russians did all this.”
‘Everybody has his personal story’
“Sports activities have at all times been politics,” says sports activities director Grushetsky. “As a result of a sports activities workforce is folks and followers, you will have affect over them by way of sports activities.”
However the Capitals gamers don’t want anybody to elucidate this to them — they’ve lived it.
“We’ve Valentyn Sirchenko — his house is within the occupied a part of Kherson Oblast, which suggests he has nowhere to return to,” says Grushetsky.
Sirchenko, enjoying in his second season for the Capitals, is likely one of the workforce’s extra aggressive defenders, having racked up fairly a number of penalty minutes this season.
Grushetsky names different gamers and the way the warfare has touched them.
There’s Deniss Berdniks, a Latvian who’s tied with Oliynyk for many assists this common season. When the full-scale invasion started on Feb. 24, 2022, he was enjoying for HC Kramatorsk and skilled assaults on town. He returned to Latvia, however got here again to Ukraine to play within the Capitals’ first two seasons.
There’s ahead Mykola Dvornyk, who got here up by way of the Kryzhynka hockey faculty and racked up many factors for the Capitals final season earlier than being sidelined by a shoulder damage this season. He survived occupation in Kherson, the place Russian troops held town for 256 days, harassing, torturing, and killing residents.
There’s Danylo Tyshchenko, a tall, athletic ahead who additionally skilled inside the Donbas system in Donetsk and debuted with a powerful efficiency for the Capitals final season. He, too, lived beneath occupation in Kherson.
There’s Denys Plesovskykh, one of many youngest on the workforce at 18, nonetheless constructing weight and power to compete with the older gamers however already scoring three objectives within the common season.
Oleksandr Valkun, born a month sooner than Plesovskykh, can also be constructing his power however boasting objectives as effectively and displaying a transparent hockey intuition.
Each teenagers have fathers who served within the warfare.
“Everybody has his personal story,” Grushetsky says. “After which there’s the fellows in all the opposite golf equipment, too.”
‘Hockey is medication’
Whereas trying to find a workforce identification, the aim was to be “right down to earth and approachable,” CEO Zimina says.
In lieu of tickets to their dwelling video games, the Kyiv Capitals request a Hr 100 donation to the navy, the equal of $2.46.
Maksim Makarov, a 15-year-old who performs for the Kyiv Capitals’ junior youth workforce, waits exterior the rink after video games within the low gentle, snagging images with a few of the gamers as they carry their gear out of the rink.
“I’ve been a fan for the reason that Kyiv Capitals had been based. I don’t miss a recreation right here,” he says. “I can’t even consider my life with out hockey.”
Just like the workforce, Makarov first started enjoying hockey after the invasion started, enhancing from season to season.
“Hockey, for me, is medication. To not take into consideration my issues. Escape actual life. Be completely satisfied on the ice. Take pleasure in each second,” Makarov says, because the low tone of yet one more air raid alert started to wail within the distance.
'Warfare eats feelings'
Because the Kyiv Capitals take the ice for the ultimate recreation of the championship sequence on April 11, the house area crowd has been standing room just for a full hour earlier than the primary puck drop.
With lower than a minute and a half left within the recreation, the Capitals are up 1-0 however the penalties are racking up. With one participant already within the penalty field, one other penalty units Kyiv down two gamers on the ice. Kremenchuk pulls their goalie to carry out one other skater — it’s three on six. Nazar Boiko, a 19-year-old goalie who has blocked a blinding variety of pictures for practically an hour of ice time, sends the gang right into a roar chanting his identify with every miraculous save.
Then, with 26 seconds left within the recreation, Kremenchuk dribbles the puck into the web. The rating is tied, sending the nationwide championship into sudden-death additional time.
“We've been by way of a lot this season.”
Any skilled sports activities workforce on this planet would really feel happy with making it into additional time in recreation seven of the championship sequence of their second season as a workforce. However when Kremenchuk scores after three and a half minutes of additional time, the Capitals gamers look exhausted.
As HC Kremenchuk gamers have fun on the ice, the packed rink begins to chant, “Ca-pi-tals, Ca-pi-tals,” as followers waved their workforce scarves and bang their fists on the glass to point out their assist for the workforce.
“We’ve been by way of a lot this season,” an emotional Grushetsky says after the sport.
As followers stream out of the sector, youngsters and adults in Capitals gear wait exterior the locker room for gamers to pose for images and signal hand-made posters. CEO Zimina greets two Ukrainian troopers on their manner out, each leaving with smiles. One other soldier on crutches limps out of the rink grinning.
Earlier than their coronary heart wrenching additional time loss, workforce captain Chernenko defined what drives him and the remainder of Ukraine’s skilled hockey gamers. “We play for the followers. I see the response of my household, my associates, acquaintances, all these hockey communities, the sentiments they get watching our matches,” Chernenko instructed the Kyiv Impartial.
“Warfare oppresses and eats feelings. Folks’s lives have modified rather a lot, however after they have the chance to get out, watch hockey, and really feel these feelings, it deeply impacts them.”
Word from the writer:
Hello, I’m Andrea Januta, the writer of this piece. Thanks for studying. As a author dwelling in Kyiv, I’m at all times attempting to share tales not solely in regards to the nation’s challenges, but additionally in regards to the cloth of Ukrainian society that so many are preventing to protect — from sports activities and faith, to fowl watchers and companies. It’s significant however troublesome work. When you’d wish to assist the Kyiv Impartial’s capacity to inform these tales from Ukraine, please think about supporting our work by changing into a member.
The Kyiv IndependentAdam Sybera