Like a piece of a past life: football offers Ukraine hope

Shakhtar's cup final win over bitter rivals Dynamo gives fans some respite as they come from the trenches to watch, but as one says: 'Right now, all of us lose'

- Nick Ames

Valeriy Bondar vaults a perfunctory metal fence, is handed a flare from somewhere in the melee and waves it around in the night sky. Shakhtar Donetsk have won the Ukrainian Cup, finally beating Dynamo Kyiv on penalties: light and smoke fill the air in Polissya Stadion's south-west corner but there is something else, too. A trickle of supporters have been allowed back into many of the country's arenas since February 2024 but more than 5,000 are packed in this time and the scenes are redolent of a different era. There has been no occasion quite like this on Ukraine's soil for well over three years.

Fireworks have been a theme all day. Ninety minutes before kick-off in Zhytomyr several dozen Shakhtar ultras from different groups convene on a footbridge that dramatically spans the River Teteriv, towards the outskirts of this neat provincial city, and march towards the ground in a pyrotechnic haze. "It's the first time in years that we've all been together in numbers like this," says one of them, Taras, whose organisation sends equipment to soldiers at the front. About 70% of those on the bridge are in active service, he estimates. Most of the military personnel have been given dispensation to take a few days off and travel for the match. One, who does not give his name, says he has come straight from the trenches. Another is Kirill, a softly spoken 23-year-old who is attending his first football match since 2021. He remembers it well: a game in Mariupol between the home team, who are now on an extended pause after Russia's occupation and devastation of the city, and Oleksandriya.