Ukraine holds first soccer tournament for war-wounded amputees — and plans to go international The players were chosen from among the thousands of Ukrainians wounded in the war.
Organized by Ukraine’s Association of Football, the “League of the Mighty” is Ukraine’s first soccer championship for amputees.
For Olena Balbek, adviser to the president of the association, the sport is one way to provide mental and physical rehabilitation for amputees while also normalizing their growing presence in society.
“This will be a priority for the next few years for us,” said Andriy Shevhenko, president of the Ukrainian Association of Football, noting there are more than 100,000 amputees in the country, most of them “soldiers who defended our country.”.
“We're really glad that we had to work our way through, it was interesting,” he said, adding that the goal is to have their own championship and to create a strong team to represent Ukraine on the international level.
