Taras Stepanenko has played more than 200 times for the Ukrainian football club Shakhtar Donetsk, but Tuesday’s match will be the first that could be interrupted by air raids.
The game in Kyiv, between Shakhtar and FC Metalist 1925 Kharkiv, will kick off the 2022-23 Ukrainian Premier League (UPL) season, and the 33-year-old midfielder, who has more than 70 caps for the national team, says that, despite the threats, he hopes football can give people some respite from the relentless news of death and destruction.
