A Canadian-Israeli ice hockey player has described his harrowing escape from Ukraine, as foreign athletes in both Ukraine and Russia face life-threatening decisions over whether to stay or go.
Eliezer Sherbatov was with his team, HC Mariupol of the Ukrainian Hockey League, in the Donetsk region last week preparing for a game against Kramatorsk when a bomb exploded outside their hotel.
“At 5am, I’m sleeping and hear: ‘Boom!’ You never hear that strong of a sound,” Sherbatov told TSN. “And it starts shaking, everything is shaking. So, a couple of metres away, the war started.”
Sherbatov said the team’s coach called a meeting at breakfast, where he explained: “Guys - the war has started. It’s unfortunate, but I would suggest you to stay put as a team. But if you choose to leave, it’s your decision.’”
Sherbatov said he and the team’s other European-Canadian eventually decided to go the local train station in Druzhkiva. The train to Lviv, however, was two days late.
“We received a call that the trains are getting shot as of now. So, the third guy that was supposed to come with us, he tells me, ‘I’m not going because I don’t want to die.’ It’s a 50-50 … chance. That’s what they said. That’s a 50-50 chance, [if] you go on the train, you [may] die. Tell me, what would you do? What decision would you take? You stay, you go to a bomb shelter, and you hope that a person doesn’t put a grenade inside the bomb shelter … Or you take the train and have a 50-50 chance at survival.”
After speaking to his father and putting his trust in God, Sherbatov said, he decided to board the train. It travelled north-west through Kramatorsk and Kharkiv then west through Kyiv, all of which are under heavy assault by the Russian military.
“Imagine how I felt in that 24 hours. I called this train the Train Of Death because every single second, you think you’re going to get shot,” he said. “It’s army everywhere – you just don’t know which [one].”
After arriving in Lviv, Sherbatov was helped by the Latvian embassy and a team of Israeli volunteers, who he said put him in charge of a bus of children and elderly people leaving for Poland. “Nobody at the consulate was coming with us because they had to wait for others,” he said. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, to be responsible for 17 people when it’s a matter of life and death.”
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On returning to Canada, Sherbatov was reunited with his family. “I met my son for the first time, and I thought I would never see them. I thought I would never see my family,” he said. “My daughter was sleeping … I hugged her and I just stayed there, just crying and stayed there. When you think you’re not going to come back, you’re never going to see your parents, the only thing you want to do now is be with your family the rest of your life.”
The Ukrainian Hockey League, where Sherbatov played for HC Mariupol, has suspended all operations because of the Russian invasion. The KHL, the largest hockey league outside of North America’s NHL, has also been affected by the war. The league is dominated by Russian clubs but two non-Russian teams, Jokerit of Finland and Dinamo Riga of Latvia, have dropped out because of the war. The league’s other non-Russian teams – Kunlun (China), Dinamo Minsk (Belarus) and Barys Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan) – have yet to comment.
Meanwhile, may of the KHL’s prominent western-born players are leaving, or attempting to leave Russia. Last week Markus Granlund of Finland broke his agreement with Salavat Yulaev Ufa just as the playoffs were beginning. Some North Americans are cancelling their contracts, too, including Shane Prince – who signed with Lugano of the Swiss league on 1 March – Geoff Platt and Nick Shore. KHL players are paid in rubles, and the currency is falling; journalist Chris Johnston has reported that agents operating in Russia fear for the long-term viability of the league.
KHL goalkeeper Frans Tuohimaa of Finland – who defeated Russia in the gold medal game at the Winter Olympics less than a month ago – told the Yle Urheilu newspaper that he tried to break his agreement with Neftehimik Nizhnekamsk but was refused permission. “I do not feel insecure here, but I have my values and for ethical reasons I want to leave. It feels wrong to be here,” Tuohimaa said. Sixteen players and five coaches from Finland remain in the KHL.
Meanwhile Russia’s most famous hockey player, Alexander Ovechkin, has attracted headlines by calling for “No more war”, despite forming a pro-Putin social media organisation in 2017 and accusing the Ukrainian government of being fascists in 2014, when Russian annexed Crimea.
