Inter Miami defender Kryvtsov tries to focus while war rages on back home in Ukraine

Sergiy Kryvtsov was in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday, as motivated as the rest of his Inter Miami teammates to beat the defending MLS champion Crew and clinch the Supporters’ Shield, awarded to the team with the best regular season record.

But the Ukrainian defender also had more serious matters on his mind. His thoughts drifted 5,200 miles to Zaporizhzhia, the town in Southeast Ukraine where his parents and sister live, a town that is 25 miles from the front lines of a war that has been raging for more than two years since the Russian invasion.

His cousin, Yevgeny Potapenko, joined the Ukrainian army and died in combat.

Zaporizhzhia has been the target of Russian attacks and was hit with multiple guided bombs on Sunday, injuring at least 16 people, including two children, and damaging railways, infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings, according to Ukrainian officials.

Kryvtsov, 33, said he starts each morning by reading news reports and watching videos from Ukraine. On days the team trains in Fort Lauderdale, he has a quiet place in the Inter Miami facility recovery room where he catches up on the news and gathers his thoughts before heading to the practice field.

“Every morning it’s news time for me, that’s my morning ritual,” he told the Miami Herald. “Outside of the pitch, I am always thinking about the situation in Ukraine because I’m worried about my parents, about my sister who are living there still. When I go to the pitch I forget about the situation, I am thinking football and that is a small part of the day when you can enjoy a football game without this situation in my country.”

He communicates with his relatives almost every day by Facetime and has tried to persuade them to move, but they don’t want to.

“They are older people, they don’t want to move even to another city in Ukraine,” he said. “They have a house, everything in that town. When we talk, we don’t just talk about the war. We talk about family, other life things. They worry about us, too, because we are in a new country with our children and they want to make sure we are ok.”

Despite the time difference, his father watches all the Inter Miami games on Apple TV.

“It was hard for them at first because they are not so good with electronic devices, but they figured it out,” he said, laughing.

Kryvtsov signed with Inter Miami in January 2023 from Ukrainian giants FC Shakhtar Donetsk through the 2024 season, with an option for 2025. The 6-1 defender had played in over 300 professional matches at club and international levels, winning 17 titles in his 13 years with Shakhtar and appearing in Champions League, UEFA Euros and the UEFA Nations League.

He was looking for a change after spending his entire career in Ukraine and wanted a safer environment for his wife and three young children, who moved from Kyiv to Poland after the Russian invasion. At the time, his son was nine, and his daughters were seven and four.

“I heard the sounds of explosions, my children heard it, and it should not be like this,” he said. “As a father, I needed to give my family safety.”

He said 2022-23 was the most difficult year of his life.

“I was traveling a lot and I didn’t see my family a lot because they were living in Poland and I lived in Ukraine sometimes, sometimes in Poland, sometimes in Germany, a lot traveling by bus and trains,” he said. “I’m not a young man, and it was tough for me. That’s why I decided to change my situation and come to America.

“I also wanted to experience something different, new country, new language. I left my comfort zone and now I’m happy that I did it.”

His English and Spanish have improved quite a bit since his arrival. He takes online classes twice a week with a Ukrainian teacher he knew who moved to Spain. Forty-five minutes of the class is in English, the other 45 is in Spanish.

He said his children adapted easily to life in South Florida, but the first six months were difficult for his wife, who left her parents and all her friends in Ukraine.

“Now, it’s better because a month ago she went to visit Ukraine and she understood that here we are living in safety and our kids don’t have to hear these sounds of explosions and sirens and other war stuff and that’s what we have to do as parents, keep our children safe,” he said.

Kryvtsov and his wife have connected with other Ukrainian immigrants in South Florida, and they help each other assimilate.

He remains in close contact with his Shakhtar teammates through a group chat on What’s App.

“I played there 13 years, so I am still very close with those teammates,” he said. “I try to watch every game, because it is not easy because of the different time zones.”

They tell him about the challenges of playing professional soccer in Ukraine during these times. They play Champions League matches in Germany and league matches in Kyiv and western parts of the country.

“I can’t say it’s safe for them, sometimes they play and then sirens sound and they have to go to shelters and wait for the alarms to end,” he said.

Inter Miami coach Tata Martino recently said that it is hard to imagine what Kryvtsov is going through and that it would be impossible not to be distracted.

Kryvtsov said he does his best to stay focused on his job.

“I don’t think only about the war,” he said. “On game day, I think about game, tactical stuff, how I need to prepare. But some days when Russians attacked a children’s hospital and stores and they killed civilians and of course, I can’t read this news and think about football.”