Brazilian footballers escape Ukraine after a terrifying ordeal

International footballers trapped in the Ukraine capital Kyiv have made it out of the country in a desperate dash for the border with their families, after the head of UEFA Aleksander Ceferin personally intervened.

The players, including members of Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk, had taken refuge in a hotel in the capital city after Russia attacked the eastern European country.

However, as the days ticked by and the situation in Ukraine grew more desperate, it became clear they had to leave but they could not get out and were forced hide in the basement bunker of the luxury accommodation.

The group, which totalled 50 people, including 14 players, released a video clip showing themselves holed up with a desperate appeal for help from their governments, as food and supplies ran out and the Russian army closed in on the besieged city.

The Shakhtar striker Junior Moraes, 34, sent a message saying: ‘The situation is one of despair.’

But yesterday, the players, wives and children completed their escape, first by bus and then on a train to Romania.

‘I have just spoken with Júnior Moraes,’ tweeted journalist Arthur Quezada.

‘Players and families managed to get out of Kiev. They’re on the train to Chernivtsi and then Romania.’

There are a dozen Brazilian players in the Shakhtar squad, including Moraes was born in Brazil but is a Ukraine international. while the forward Vitinho plays for Dynamo Kyiv.

David Neres, a Brazil international, had just completed a transfer from Dutch club Ajax to Shakhtar last month.

Other Brazilian players in Shakhtar’s squad are defenders Dodo, Vitao, Marlon, Ismaily and Vinicius Tobias, plus midfielders Maycon, Marcos Antonio, Tete, Alan Patrick, Pedrinho and Fernando.

The footballers are among more than 500,000 refugees, mainly women and children, who are fleeing Ukraine for the West, with some children separated or even orphaned since the invasion began. Queues of up to 25 miles are reported at the border with Poland. 

The players and their families first made a short dash in a convoy of cars to the train station, flying Brazil flags from wing mirrors and windows in the hope it would identify them as neutrals and ensure their safety. They feared what could happen if they missed the train and were stranded in the city.

Pedrinho, Shakhtar’s (r) 23-year-old midfielder, pictured playing for Brazil U23, made it out of Kyiv 

Maria Souza, wife of Shakhtar Donetsk’s Marlon Santos, uploaded a distressing video to Instagram of her fraught journey from the hotel. Through tears, she told how they were trying to catch one of three trains heading west.

Most of the players took the same train on Saturday, carrying them to Chernivtsi in the south west of Ukraine. It took 16 hours. Then they crossed into Moldova by bus. Some stayed in Moldova and others took a seven-hour bus journey to the Romanian capital Bucharest, where they arrived on Sunday and started to search for flights back to Brazil.

‘Finally we have time to breathe,’ said Pedrinho, Shakhtar’s 23-year-old midfielder, from Bucharest. ‘But all things are still a bit confused.’

The population of Kyiv has been sheltering underground while the Russians have attacked the capital

This arduous route via Moldova has proved quicker than an independent crossing into Poland for Lucas Rangel, a Brazilian who plays for Vorskla Poltava, 200 miles east of Kyiv. It took him four days to reach and cross the border into Poland.

Shakhtar’s Italian coach Roberto di Zerbi and his eight staff made it out of Kyiv by train to Lviv in the west of Ukraine.

Former Shakhtar boss Paulo Fonseca, his Ukrainian wife and their son also escaped Kyiv to Romania on Sunday, in a mission orchestrated by the Portuguese Embassy. ‘We thank everyone who helped us,’ said Fonseca, who escaped in a 15-seater minivan through Moldova, with other Portuguese citizens employed by Shakhtar Donetsk.

Fonseca’s family tried to leave by air on Thursday morning but all flights were suspended.

Shakhtar’s Brazil-born Ukraine international forward Junior Moraes sent out an appeal 

Shakhtar have been playing in exile, first in Lviv and more recently in Kyiv, since the war erupted in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and parts of the Donbas region fell to pro-Russian forces.

The desperate situation began on Thursday as the Russians attacked Ukraine and the players and families were ferried to the hotel by their clubs.

As the situation deteriorated, with the civilian population sheltering underground and Russian rockets exploding in Kyiv, the international players dared not make a break for the station.

On Friday, they received a message to head for the train station and board trains out of the capital but were too afraid to leave without security. They stayed in the hotel bunker, where they were woken during the night by explosions around the city. Food and water was in short supply and one of the players has a baby only four months old.

Shakhtar’s Maycon, 24, posted a short video on social media of deserted streets and rocket fire and said: ‘For those who are saying that we don’t want to walk 1.5km to be saved, how would we do this with children, women and elderly. We are willing to do everything necessary to get out of here, but we just need safety to get to the necessary places in order to leave.’

UEFA president Ceferin saw their plight and intervened. 

‘I am speaking with them every hour,’ Ceferin told the New York Times from his home in Slovenia.

Last week, the UEFA chief arranged with President Emmanuel Macron of France to move the Champions League final from St Petersburg to Paris.

The Brazil international David Neres recently completed a move from Ajax to Shakhtar 

He went back to the French government to ask for their help to evacuate the players. 

On Saturday, the football authorities UEFA, FIFPRO and the FAs of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania combined to effect the rescue. The players and their families were escorted to the station and the logistics were set in place for the later stages of the journey.

Meanwhile, the players and staff left behind at clubs in Ukraine are focusing on protecting their families, or in some cases taking up arms to repel the Russian assault.

‘It’s awful,’ Ukrainian football journalist, Adam Pate, told Sportsmail.

‘Most foreigners have made it across the border,’ added the podcaster at UkrFut24, messaging from his home in Ukraine. ‘Most [Ukrainian players] are protecting families now.’

The Ukraine Premier League was suspended last week when Russian forces began their invasion after previously insisting they would play on, even as the crisis loomed. But no one – in Ukraine or elsewhere – anticipated the ferocity and extent of the Russian assault.

Cities across Kyiv have been under siege. And today, President Zelensky said in a TV address that 16 Ukrainian children have been killed and 45 wounded in the four days since the invasion began. 

President of UEFA Aleksander Ceferin was in hourly contact with the players in Ukraine

A huge explosion is seen at Vinnytsia military base, in central Ukraine, as the country comes under all-out attack by Russia

An explosion lights up the night sky over Kiev in the early hours of Thursday, as Russia launched an all-out attack on Ukraine from north, south and east with bombs, cruise missiles and rockets raining from the skies

And some Ukrainians are coming home to fight.

A photograph of Yuriy Vernydub, the Ukrainian manager of the Moldvovan club, Sheriff Tiraspol, in military fatigues was posted on Twitter by journalist, Andrew Todos.

‘Sheriff Tiraspol manager Yuriy Vernydub is primed and ready!’ wrote Todos, who runs the Ukraine football site, Zorya Londonsk.

‘He defeated Real Madrid in the autumn Now he’s joined the territorial defence effort too.’

And defender Vasyl Kravets, who plays for Sporting Gijon in the Spanish second division, that he is willing to go to war even though he does not know how to reload a gun.

Sporting Gijon’s Ukrainian defender Vasyl Kravets has revealed he wants to go to war, and is willing to put his career on hold to do so.

Kravets (right) has been capped by Ukraine’s U21s and is currently on loan at Sporting Gijon from Leganes

‘They are killing people, civilians, in hospitals… it’s all Putin’s fault, I don’t want to say it’s Russia’s fault, but Putin’s,’ Kravets , last week.

‘We are a country that wants to live in peace. We don’t want to attack anyone, we want to live well and calm. I tell the truth: I want to go to war and help my people.

‘But I can’t help because I don’t know how to shoot, how to move, how to reload a gun…but the truth is that I want to help. 

Amid the mounting tensions, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s office announced that the two sides would meet at an unspecified location on the Belarusian border, where a Russian delegation was waiting Sunday.

But the Kremlin’s ultimate aims in Ukraine – and what steps might be enough to satisfy Moscow – remained unclear.

The fast-moving developments came as scattered fighting was reported in Kyiv, battles broke out in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and strategic ports in the country’s south came under assault from Russian forces.

With Russian troops closing in around Kyiv, a city of almost 3million, the mayor of the capital expressed doubt civilians could be evacuated.

Across the country, Ukrainian defenders were putting up stiff resistance that appeared to slow Russia’s advance.

Meanwhile, the top official in the European Union outlined plans by the 27-nation bloc to close its airspace to Russian airlines and fund the purchase of weapons for Ukraine.