Young Ukrainian ice hockey players arrive in Romania after evacuation from war-torn nation

Just a month ago, the chance to showcase their skills in a foreign country would have been a dream come true for the young athletes, who had been playing in the junior league of Ukraines Ice Hockey Federation.Now, while grateful for the opportunity to train and play in safety, most appeared haunted by what they have left behind.

Lugging bags and hockey sticks, a group of Ukrainian teenagers walked across the border into Romania on Monday, leaving their war-ravaged country behind.

To reach the safety of neighbouring Romania, where they will get a chance to train and play as members of newly formed special teams, the teenagers had to escape their home towns following relentless bombardment by Russia's occupying forces. Just a month ago, the chance to showcase their skills in a foreign country would have been a dream come true for the young athletes, who had been playing in the junior league of Ukraine's Ice Hockey Federation.

Now, while grateful for the opportunity to train and play in safety, most appeared haunted by what they have left behind. ''My parents (are) in Ukraine, I am here and that is okay, but my parents are in Ukraine,'' said Denis Nalivaiko, 17, from Kharkiv. Ukraine's second-largest city and Nalivaiko's hometown has been under relentless artillery barrage since Moscow launched the invasion on 24th February. Most of its 1.5 million residents have now left their devastated city and while the youngster has embraced the chance to depart for the safety of Romania, his parents have joined over 6.5 million Ukrainians displaced inside their homeland.

A former Ukrainian professional player, Evgheniy Pysarenko, who has been living and working as a coach in Romania for years, was at the Siret border crossing in Romania Monday to greet Nalivaiko and other young athletes, most of them from Kharkiv. Pysarenko is part of the effort, supported by Romania's hockey federation, to give the youngsters a chance to live and train in Romania, as well as to compete in Romania's national junior hockey league as part of separate Ukrainian sections of the Romanian teams that will host them.

The group of Ukrainian hockey players who arrived on Monday will shortly leave for the city of Brasov, in central Romania, where they are expected to take up training as soon as they have settled in accommodation secured by the local hockey-loving community.

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