Original subtitles

My name is Alla Herasymenko.

My brother was Oleksander Serbinov,

an athlete who achieved stellar success

but volunteered to defend Ukraine and died in this war.

My name is Yaroslav Havryliv.

I am the father of Peter Havryliv

who died in south Ukraine.

He was a goalie at FC Lviv.

I am the mother of Oleksander Serhiovich Shchenin,

former footballer.

He died in war near Zaporizhzhia.

He was 33 at the time.

My name is Irina Yerofieieva.

I am the mother of deceased hero Makar Yerofieiev.

He played for many football clubs in Dnipro.

He had a Ukrainian Championship silver medal.

He was a defense player tasked with defending his team.

Then he became a defender of his country

and gave his life for the freedom and independence of Ukraine

while defending our homeland.

I am Taras Avertur, boxer, a trainee of Mykhail Korenovski

who was killed by a rocket launched by Russian terrorists.

My name is Ksiusha, I am the daughter of Oleksander Zakolodny,

whose soldier nickname was Rock, because he was a mountaineer.

He was probably the best mountaineer in Ukraine.

He was killed by the Russians in January 2023.

- My name is Oleksander Obedinskyi. - I am Kira.

My son, Yevgeniy Obedinskiy, was a great water polo player.

He was my dad.

He died in 2022,

during a Russian shelling of residential areas.

My name is Nina Serbina-Lanka.

My son, Dmytro Mykolajovich Serbin, played American football.

As soon as the full-scale Russian invasion started,

he went to the front as a medic.

He carried many wounded people from the battlefield.

In a repeated shelling of a site

where they intervened, he died.

SHELTER SAFE AREA

CHARAKTER: SPORTOVEC

A play by Maxim Cherepinski, pass and touchdown!

Number 88, Dmytro Serbin, scores his second touchdown of this match.

These are Ukrainian Championship medals. Gold, silver and bronze.

He was a six-time Ukrainian Champion.

If you turn them around like this, it's the infinity of the universe.

I didn't know he was at the front.

I thought he was training volunteer medics at a training ground.

After he died, I was told he was at the front. He didn't tell me.

And he asked all his friends not to tell me.

That was why I didn't even know he was there.

Now all I can do is be proud of him.

He drove to the battle zone in his own vehicle

that volunteers bought for him.

As a military medic, he was driving soldiers back from the front line.

He picked up, loaded and drove back over 30 wounded soldiers

in his four-seat car.

We carried presents and got wounded people.

We helped them.

During his last sortie, no room was left for him.

He decided to let a lightly wounded commander drive instead of him.

He had a leg injury but could still drive the car.

He decided to stay on the battlefield

and wait for them to return and pick him up.

But it was clear that there may be no one to come back for him,

because most of the soldiers were injured.

He decided to sacrifice himself

to save more people.

It was his choice and it shows his personality.

Dima was the best receiver in Ukraine, he hardly ever missed a pass.

Even though all teams knew this play

where Max would throw the ball and Dima would catch it,

even when two opponents tried to block Sebin, he always made it.

Dima was a master, he went around them and received the pass.

Dima was scared of nothing, he always pushed on and on.

Even when we were losing, he never lost his enthusiasm.

He'd give us pep talk: "I'm going for it, we gotta win!"

He was running up and down the line and motivating the guys to win.

And we won a lot.

He loved taking risks and knew that he would push forward,

fulfill his mission and come back.

I think it was his love of danger that spurred him

to do things that most people are scared of.

Did you see that pass? That was Mahomes!

Quarterback Mahomes does that!

Oleksandrivska Hospital, Kiev Department of Cardiology

We have a lot of photos of Dmytro. We drew on his face as a joke here.

We also have his lucky helmet. It's on display here.

Normally, it protects you from all kinds of nasty injuries.

Dmytro worked at a coronary care unit for over 10 years.

He had substantial cardiological experience.

He did many successful thrombolysis, saved many lives.

- I don't know what to show you. - This photo.

This is a photo of Dmytro Mykolayovich and one other doctor.

Why did he go to the front? Because he was a real man.

And real men always defend what they hold dear.

They say: "Who if not us?" And they're right.

So he decided to do it. It was his choice, you can't judge him.

Because he was an athlete, he thought he was in a great shape

and that this was what he needed to be in shape for,

that he was physically so strong

that he could defend the country and everyone.

That was why he really did it.

We believed that when our team was losing,

Dima would enter the game and lead us to victory.

When Dima joined the army, I thought we'd definitely win.

We were sure about it.

I had no idea that Russian grenades

were stronger than my son's will to win

and to liberate our homeland from this Russian scum.

I'm done.

None of us would ever imagine we'd live to be this disappointed.

He could swim and then come out dry, everything always worked out for him.

He had great talent.

He always pulled off a miracle and stayed alive.

Nobody expected this.

Number 88...

I'd say it was 70% his humanity and maturity

that made him understand: who if not us? I talked to him about it.

He was among the first to go to the front

and said: "Who else, Sasha?"

We will fight to the end. Thank you for your support.

We thank the whole world for supporting us.

We can win this game and beat evil.

After two years of war, more than 400 athletes died in Ukraine.

Others are dying right now...

Volodmir Temcenko, head of the Department of Sports

at Kharkiv National University

This is where the Olympic training center was for fencing,

Ukrainian futsal players, archery.

It's use changed over time.

Not only the Ukrainian national team trained here

but also the Japanese fencing team

that won the Olympic gold medal in team fencing in Tokyo.

As far as I know, they were two Su-25 fighter planes.

I don't know which direction, this way or this way.

They dropped 5 or 6 bombs on this part of the compound.

One definitely fell here,

another one hit that part. Or even two.

There, as you can see, it was definitely two bombs.

And at least two fell in front of the stadium.

There used to be spectator stalls but they're gone.

We used to train here, on this balcony.

We practiced long-range shooting here.

There was also a mini-soccer pitch.

A basketball court was over there. A bomb hit the stalls over there.

They hit the exact spot where we used to shoot.

Our targets are still there.

- I think there was a wall here. - Was.

- Where is it? - This is it.

We used to shoot at 70 meters from up here.

- The target was by that wall. - It's over there, Nikita.

To cause damage to the country.

To harm its culture, sports...

To them, we don't exist as a nation.

Our targets were over there by that wall.

Intentionally or accidentally,

they tried to destroy this sports center twice.

In early January, an Iskander missile hit some 200 meters from here.

As far as target selection goes, they don't care.

They bomb everything that matters to us, anything that's part of us.

In Ukraine, the attacks of the Russian army destroyed

hundreds of sport centers,

some youth sport centers and some olympic sport centers.

This is our big climbing wall.

This is Sasha and his friend Grisha, mountaineers.

Together, they went to fight at the front.

They were friends since elementary school and they died the same day.

In January,

mom came to me, I was at my training session.

She told me Sasha was dead.

I said: "He can't be, somebody made a mistake!"

At first, I though it was a very dumb joke.

I couldn't believe it.

Your mind understands it

but your heart can't believe he isn't here anymore.

I don't know. It hurts really bad. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Sasha is getting ready to climb. It's his turn.

Climb, climb, climb. It'll never end!

We've been climbing for two days!

Yes, he was the best in Ukraine. He was an excellent climber.

I've never seen another mountaineer like him in Ukraine.

Before the war, he was busy getting ready to climb Mount Everest.

His expedition was already planned but the war started, so he didn't go.

I know it was his little dream. Maybe it wasn't that little.

But the war started and he went to defend his homeland.

Sasha was 35.

Sasha and Grisha built this together.

For instance, Sasha made these grips himself.

Usually, they order them and buy them but Sasha made these himself.

Little children come to train here. The youngest one is 3 years old.

It's all just unfair.

How can someone come to your house and take everything you have?

He said: "What's going on?

Strangers come to your house to take what's yours?"

He said: "That can't be." and went to war.

I must say it was very painful,

because it's so unfair when they take away your loved one.

And it wasn't life or a disease that took him,

it was people who invaded your home and simply decided to kill him.

Russians were running around Kyiv,

that's our movie theater, it's closed now.

On February 25 or 26, they already came with tanks and armored vehicles.

It's 200 meters from here. They were there, shooting at people.

And also by the climbing center, they were around there.

At the beginning of the war,

I wrote to Russian athletes that war had started here:

"Protest, do something!"

They said: "If our president did it, then it was necessary."

So no one listened to me.

I couldn't understand that,

because I was on very good terms with those people.

We saw each other at European Championships, we talked.

And then they wrote me: "If our president did it, it was necessary."

Necessary?

We did no harm to you, we just trained and lived our lives.

Did you decide to take our beautiful life from us?

Why didn't you try to get a better life for yourself?

Why take it away from us?

I found no one to support us, none of them left Russia.

At least not anyone I'd know.

I know of people who have left Russia but they aren't athletes.

They said they were against the war and everything,

left the country and burned their Russian passports.

But none of my friends did it.

Everything's fine with them, they're training for competitions.

I'm not going to these Olympics, I had no time to qualify.

The qualifications took place a year ago

and because of Sasha's death,

I decided not to participate in the Olympic qualifications,

so I'm not going to Paris this year.

I don't know what I'll do when I see them at competitions.

I know some Russians and Belarussians have been allowed to participate

but I don't know what I'll do if I run into them.

I still don't understand how I'm supposed to come to terms with it.

Let's say you go there, compete, but you still watch the news.

A Russian missile flying there, a Russian athlete walking here.

I don't know. I feel like smacking them.

I feel like grabbing a gun a shooting them right there,

because their whole nation is guilty. I don't believe in good Russians.

When the war started, schools closed and so did our ice rink.

We spent 3 weeks sitting down and listening to air-raid sirens.

We decided we had to do something.

Our elder son had played ice hockey for 8 years, their team was excellent.

We saw that children from our team were leaving.

Our coach told us we'd better leave too.

HC Letci Let?any Stadium, Prague

95% of the team left.

To Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, the USA, the Czech Republic.

Pretty much all the core players went abroad.

We had no idea what was going to happen.

We hoped we'd be back in 2 weeks.

Then he told us he found a family that would give us a place to stay.

- And that was Marek. - Marek.

In Prague, the kids met a legend of Czech ice hockey.

Every boy dreams about meeting Dominik Hašek. It was just great.

Hey, Herman. Dominik. Remember?

We met at the embassy here in Prague.

All the best!

Herman, goalkeeper of the Dnipro Jaguars

We spent 18 months in the Czech Republic

and saw that Ukrainian ice hockey was still surviving,

so we decided to try to return to Ukraine

and see if we could live there.

We'd see what the situation was with work, hockey and school.

School is only online. When the sirens start, school ends.

But training continues.

Hockey training is the only part of normal life that's left,

because there's no other place where kids can meet.

Dominik, thanks for the cap!

Keep playing matches as long as you can play ice hockey.

And where's the jersey?

I see it! Is it number 39?

- I see a three, 39! - Yeah!

In Ukraine, you feel sorry for the kids.

Why? Many coaches left Ukraine.

And I have a lot of experience, many of my trainees made the national team

and played in clubs around the world.

So I think I can be useful to Ukraine

and train a lot more boys

for the national team and other top teams.

- Everything clear? - Yes.

- Any questions? - No.

Thousands, especially young athletes, fled from Ukraine.

Whole teams broke up.

He was 14 here. He won Ukrainian championship medals in his age group.

This is our goalie, attacker, defender.

His jersey number was 24 and he died at the age of 24.

A foreign-legion soldier was wounded. Not a soldier from his unit.

He turned off the radio and went to rescue him.

We just picked them up. What're you gonna do?

- I'll carry them. -By yourself? - That's the order!

When he was carrying him, mortar shelling started.

All the guys were wounded but alive, only Makar died.

- From above. - Sure. And right and left, damn it.

I heard it coming from right and left.

And in the open field, it started coming from the back too.

They radioed him that he couldn't go there because of drones and mines.

You can't go there, the area is being shelled.

They told him several times until he turned the radio off

and said: "Who will save him if not me?"

If I pull you out but don't get very far, you're screwed.

There are people like that. I

asked him why he didn't want to shine on his own.

He said: "My task is to send a long pass and start an attack,

not to take the puck all the way to the goal."

He understood that team interest was above personal ambition.

It was the same at the front.

When the war started, he was offered to play for Sokil Kyiv.

But he turned them down and went to the front,

even though he was number one on Sokil Kyiv's draft list.

When he was leaving, he said:

"I'm a defender, so I'll defend my homeland."

He was like that.

Swimming stadium, Dnipro

I'm from Dnipro. This is my pool. Now it's a little...

... broken.

But we keep swimming. All the kids keep swimming, we're fine.

This place was hit by missiles twice. First in September

before the World Championship and then at the end of the year.

The missile fell here.

We were training for the Junior World Championship.

After the missile hit, we spent a whole day cleaning up.

We helped all the coaches and pool workers clean up the place.

And we resumed training the next day.

Here, the Ukrainian junior national team trained

for the World Championship.

We went to the championship, we did well.

I won two gold medals

and one silver.

And I'm going to Paris, to the Olympics.

Athletes stick together in sports.

They are focused and determined.

That's why they're always the first to go to war

and they put everything into it.

Because if you want to succeed in sports, you need a strong will.

That was why Sasha was always in the first lines.

When you look at the picture, it feels like he's here.

He died in the Kharkiv region, Izium county.

I told him: "Sasha, you should protect us here, stay in defense."

He said: "I can't sit here, I have to go.

Young people are going and I am supposed to stay home?" His words.

When he died, he was 44.

He came here in 9th grade and soon achieved great success.

He was always decisive and constructive,

like you're supposed to be.

He had a college diploma as a PE teacher.

With all the kids including Sasha, we started here.

They ran cross country...

As Sasha used to say, it was an Olympic course.

Six champions trained here, two international champions,

two participants in the Olympics and European championships.

These were paralympic games that Sasha took part in

with a blind athlete.

I think that sports was a major reason why Sasha volunteered to go to war.

He got into a volunteer unit and died at the front.

I think he fought at the front just like he fought for sports medals.

This is his family, his loved ones.

He told his mom: "Mom, who if not me?"

Dynamo Charkov Stadium

It's really dangerous to train now,

because training is unfortunately forbidden.

Missiles from Belgorod get here in 40 seconds

and air-raid sirens can't react that fast.

Sometimes, a missile hits and then the sirens go off.

There are over 1000 children in our sports school

but unfortunately, this facility cannot be used,

because it's very dangerous.

There are missiles and grenades falling here.

Incoming fire damages the compound.

Almost all the windows broke here after a missile exploded.

All the glass fell into the gymnastics hall.

This is Rustam Sharipov, two time Olympic winner.

Athletes who train at our Dinamo compound

have represented Ukraine at many international competitions.

These are Olympic athletes, Olympic winners and medalists.

They think they are coming to liberate us.

What do they want to liberate us from?

We are home in our country

and we believe our athletic spirit cannot be broken.

The last video he sent me was very short.

This is the last video he shot just before his death.

He's walking, probably returning from somewhere.

A short video made just before his death.

It was the last video he sent to me.

Glory to the heroes!

See? His nickname was Dynamo.

Unfortunately, this is all I have left from him.

People say that someone is crazy about sports, arts, etc.,

and Sanya was absolutely devoted to soccer.

He played it since he was 5.

His talent, his desire...

I'd say it was fanatism, a deep dedication to the sport.

They got used to winning.

He won a lot of awards for first and second places.

Finishing third was a tragedy to him and he'd come home crying.

That's probably the origin. He really loved it.

I wanted him to graduate from college.

Here you can see he graduated from a state university.

When the war started, he tried hard to get into homeland defense.

He took it really seriously. They were helping our seniors,

because a lot of people left and seniors stayed.

On January 4, he joined the Ukrainian army.

I could do nothing about it, because it was his choice.

He really wanted it.

Tomorrow, it'll be 5 months since he's no longer among us.

We only have the report they brought with him.

They brought him after two weeks and we arranged his funeral.

It says:

"On the battlefield in the battle zone."

Cause of death: crushed head.

So unfortunately,

his head was crushed so basically, he had no head.

Cyclodrome, Kharkov

It was a Shahed drone attack.

This used to be a gymnasium, those were locker rooms.

Unfortunately, our sports center is currently out of order,

we can't train there.

Just 5 people came to train today. Just 5!

Before the war, 25 people would come to train.

Dnipro, boxing center

Misha was at home.

Just as his family, his wife and children went outside

and waited for him to get ready and join them,

the house got a direct hit.

It was a 9-story building. He died inside that house.

Mykhailo Mykhailovich Korenovsky, our boxing star.

Our school is proud of him as a coach and as a person.

We searched for him for 2 days, his friends, a search party.

What can I say? Just swear and curse at what's going on,

What our enemies are doing. There's nothing else I can call them.

Our cursed enemies.

Boxing is a man-against-man fight but also a competition.

It strengthens your spirit. You are driven to win.

That's why it's interesting but it takes a lot of effort.

He raised a lot of athletes at this school.

Almost 100 athletes trained with him.

You get up in the morning with some unresolved questions.

Who do you call?

Mykhailo always helps, always supports you.

Now you have no one to call.

Change couples! Faster, faster, hut, hut!

Charkov University Sports Center

In 2022, two Iskander missiles hit here.

One exploded over there, the other one a bit farther.

This was the gym.

This is the center of the basketball court that stayed almost intact.

A volleyball post remained over there.

I'd rather not go there. Look at that slab hanging there.

Sports teams used to train here:

athletics, basketball, volleyball, tennis, wrestling.

This venue hosted competitions - regional, national and international.

It had a climbing wall.

Who did this sports arena bother? Putin? I don't get it.

The pool is in this section, it was also damaged.

It took a long time to fix but it's open now.

The explosion was on this side and the blast wave went this way.

Half of the pool was destroyed, this whole wall collapsed into the pool.

All over the country,

bombs come after the sirens go off.

But here in Kharkiv, a missile comes and then the sirens go off.

Within 40 seconds, the missile hits and we have a minute to hide.

It can come any day.

Many people have returned home and seek distraction

to forget the madness of war for a while.

That's why there are so many children now.

Very strong shelling of our neighborhood started.

Dad went out on the balcony and they started shooting at windows.

Dad got hit by I don't know what, a fragment I guess.

He got injured died right there on the balcony.

He was the captain of the Mariupol team, a 13-time champion of Ukraine.

He died at the age of 38.

When the strong shelling started, we wanted to leave Mariupol.

We were on our way out when a food bag broke.

We wanted to fix it but a mine or something exploded near us.

We were injured and got taken to a hospital in Donetsk.

Their dog was the closest to the blast epicenter and died on the spot.

It means the dog basically saved those girls.

After a while in hospital, I wrote my grandpa

what happened and that I was in the hospital.

He got busy writing everywhere to get me out of there.

I did the possible and the impossible, I tried the media and my friends,

I even got the case all the way to Vatican.

I was hoping Grandpa would come for me, of course, it was hard.

At the last hospital in Donetsk, they told me

that if Grandpa didn't show up soon, they'd send me to an orphanage.

They could've put me in an orphanage, because I had already recovered.

They would've sent her to a Russian orphanage or foster family

had I not come for her.

I spoke to a doctor who openly told me

that if I didn't get there, they'd send her to a Russian orphanage.

I picked her up on Saturday and the Monday after,

she would've been sent away. So I just made it.

Kira is the first girl deported by the Russians

to officially return to Ukraine.

This is our shelter where we have to hide when the siren goes off.

It's just concrete blocks and it fits 10-12 people.

The basketball court has a shelter for all its spectators.

So if there are 600 spectators, they all have to fit in that shelter.

Their shelter is big. When there's a match, they have to be ready.

BC Dnipro vs. BC Cerkaski Mavpy, Superliga, 650 spectators

Please, proceed to the shelter. As soon as we are notified

that the air-raid alert is over, we will inform you.

Don't forget your things and don't forget your children.

The match was interrupted twice.

The first three-quarters went as normal.

At the start of the last quarter, the first alert took like 10 minutes.

Then we played for 3 minutes and another alert took 40 minutes.

We've had matches that had to be postponed.

You start playing but when the Shaheds attack, it's over.

Then the air-raid alert can last 5-6 hours and all life stops.

More, more, more!

People missed basketball a lot.

It's a chance to stop thinking about the war for a moment

and watch your favorite team play.

It happened in Lviv.

An enemy missile hit a residential area

where he lived in a high-rise panel building.

If you want to keep filming, it's okay.

It says Dnipro region.

Okay, Dnipro.

It's going to be an exemplary case,

because in Lviv - imagine! In such a big city -

where he lived on the 7th or 8th floor, this thing happened that was...

He was on the national team, lots of kids always gathered around him,

they were this little, remember? A lot of children followed him

and hung on to him like this. He was blond and looked like a sun.

He had offers to work as a coach abroad

but he chose Kremenchuk.

He said he owed one to that city.

It's a great tragedy for us. This war is taking our best.

He took the decisive step.

He concluded it was necessary to defend our homeland.

It was a very difficult decision because no one forced him.

He went to the front

and died there when a mine exploded.

That was what happened.

Petro joined the group when he was 8.

He chose to be a goalkeeper.

Havryliv Petro, 09/07.

I still think about him.

A great guy, wasn't scared of the centers.

He'd catch every shot and save the match for his team.

He used to go to Bucha and was there during that catastrophe.

He saw dead bodies in the streets, on the sidewalks, severed heads.

He brought humanitarian aid there in his own car.

I don't know what exactly but he brought a lot of it there.

There was this fantastic moment when I called him and he said:

"Grandpa, I'm going to war."

I said: "Petro, don't!" He was exempt from military service.

He was a senior in college,

was the head of his study group, spoke English and Polish.

He had a great future ahead.

"But there's a war and I have to defend our country."

Those were his words.

He said: "Your dad fought in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

Now it's my turn."

What was I supposed to do?

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come, your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread...

My wife and I went to Kyiv, to the training center,

to talk him out of it. He said: "Who if not me?"

Those are different mindsets: field players and the goalie.

They are different.

The goalie is a protector by nature.

A protector of his team, of his goal.

It shows in their character.

When at every training session, tournament or match,

you're in the goal defending your team from loss.

It might have influenced his decision.

I think so.

I had no other arguments, so he went to the front.

We kept calling each other but after some time he became unreachable.

We were informed he was dead.

"Who if not me?" were his words.

He was my little boy...

The ruling of the International Olympic Committee

regarding the Russian Federation's breach of anti-doping regulations

where the government intervened in doping cases

introduced sanctions against Russia that were stricter back then

than the current sanctions are due to Russia's war on Ukraine.

So to the IOC, a breach of doping rules is a greater crime

than war, murder and destruction of sports infrastructure in Ukraine.

As to the participation of Russians in the Olympics, I have a sad story:

two days before the war, I returned from the European Championship.

A few days before that, we competed against Russians in the semifinals

and when we lost, etiquette required us to shake hands with them.

So we had to do it

but we didn't know they'd start killing our countrymen in a few days.

That's why I very much regret it now. I'm sorry.

I wouldn't shake hands with them, because...

Recently, I lost my father,

so I don't want to express any kind of respect to these people.

I'm being very polite here.

They may not be personally responsible but for me it was hard

to communicate with them, play against them, because we're at war.

The aggressor state attacked us, destroyed our family's house,

our sports arena. That's why it's unpleasant for me.

That's Misha, isn't it?

That's from the 1980 Moscow Olympics. It stayed here like this.

Are you asking what if on the other side,

there are also athletes like our Ukrainians?

But the situation, the relationship has changed, do you understand?

Why? Because the other side is the aggressor, they're killing us.

Think about my Kobzisty's case. Is it fair play or not?

Is it political or non-political?

A murder is a murder. Unpunished.

Shameless. In the middle of Europe. Is it even possible?

The guys wouldn't play either. They understand what's going on.

When they're killing our children, their mothers, fathers, brothers...

I'm sure you understand we can't have a normal relationship with them.

Look! This is our sports arena.

Thousands of such sports facilities have been destroyed all over Ukraine.

Soccer stadiums, gymnasiums, swimming pools...

I'm very sorry that people don't understand it.

Ice hockey is the most important thing in my life.

It's the reason I get up every day and work to improve myself.

The most important thing in my life.

They have to go for a medical checkup in front of the draft committee.

But up to 18 years of age, they can leave Ukraine and keep playing.

I don't want to think about my child being forced to fight.

After we got him the visa that Ukrainians can get

in the Canadian CUAET program, Serhiy called the couch

who chose a team for him and found him a place to stay.

Now I'm a bit nervous, because I've never flown before.

But it's nothing terrible, it's fine.

Canada is a country of limitless ice-hockey opportunities

where you can grow and work to improve yourself every day.

Great opportunities await me there.

I can prove my talent and maybe even stay there.