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Ukraine has launched its first football club for amputee veterans, providing wounded soldiers with a therapeutic outlet and a chance to regain their strength.
Bohdan Melnyk, who coaches the team in Lviv, western Ukraine, told Euronews that he prefers rehabilitation training.
"It’s better for me to work with amputee players," he said, "because I am providing physical support through coaching but also psychological support.”
Most of the soldiers on the team suffered severe injuries while in combat.
"You could feel some different emotions but for me, I think that football always was some kind of therapy, when I can relax, when I could regenerate my mind. I could just forget about anything just playing football, just concentrating on the thing which I love," said veteran Valentin Osovskyy.
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The team's determination extends beyond recreation; they recently showcased their resilience at an international championship.
"[We played a] tournament, for example, and it was in Poland," Osovskyy says. "For us maybe it was kind of revenge to show that Ukra？ne's spirit is unbreakable and I want to show that we are strong and we are proceeding to fight."
Some 40,000 people, mostly soldiers, have lost limbs as a result of Russia's war in Ukraine, according to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office.
Back on the battlefield, Kyiv’s forces are hoping for more military supplies from Ukraine’s Western partners, but in the meantime are struggling against a bigger and better-provisioned Russian army that is pressing hard at certain front-line points inside Ukraine.
The club aims to inspire other former soldiers and promote the sport's therapeutic benefits.
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Poland’s president and prime minister will visit the White House on Tuesday in an attempt to spur the US to send more aid to Ukraine, at a time when the new funds remain stalled in Congress.
US President Joe Biden invited Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk for meetings to mark the 25th anniversary of Poland’s accession to NATO, a historic step for the country after breaking free from Moscow’s sphere of influence.
Duda and Tusk will also meet with US lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday, asking them to pass a new package delivering military aid to Kyiv and break the standoff between Congress's two parties. While the Senate has passed a $118 billion (€108 billion) bipartisan package including $60 billion (€55 billion) in Ukraine funding, the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives is refusing to bring it to the floor for a vote.
The visit comes at a time when Poland is trying to motivate the West to increase its defence spending to match Russia’s efforts.
“The war in Ukraine has clearly shown that the United States is and should remain the leader in security issues in Europe and the world,” Duda said in an address to his country on Monday.
“However, other NATO countries must also take greater responsibility for the security of the entire alliance and intensively modernise and strengthen their troops.”
Speaking to reporters before boarding his plane in Warsaw, Duda said that while the talks in Washington would celebrate an anniversary, they would above all focus on European security going forward and "about Russian imperial policy, which has returned.”
Polish media noted that this trip will be the first time in a quarter-century that a Polish president and prime minister have both visited Washington at the same time, highlighting the seriousness of this historical moment.
Concerns are growing over the future of the conflict in Ukraine, as Kyiv is currently running low on ammunition and needs to have its stocks replenished soon. At the same time, Russia appears to be gaining ground on the battlefield, a major contrast to the weakness and disorganisation its forces displayed in 2022 and much of 2023.
The visit will also give Biden a chance to articulate how he views the role of NATO in the near future.
His rival Donald Trump, whom he’s likely to face in a rematch at the November 5 election, recently said that were he to retake the White House, NATO countries who do not contribute their "fair share" to the alliance would be left at Russia's mercy.
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Germany's train drivers staged a 24-hour strike on Tuesday in the latest move of a long-running dispute over working hours with the country's main railway operator, while a walkout by cabin crew at Lufthansa takes place.
The GDL union called on drivers of state-owned Deutsche Bahn's passenger trains to walk out starting at 2 a.m. The union is demanding for working hours to be reduced from 38 to 35 hours per week without a pay cut.
In talks between the union and Deutsche Bahn, moderators suggested a reduction from 38 to 36 hours by 2028, but details of their proposal didn’t satisfy GDL. The union demanded a new offer by Sunday evening, which wasn’t forthcoming.
The latest GDL walkout — the sixth in a dispute that started last year — coincided with a separate 19-hour strike by Lufthansa cabin crew on flights departing from Frankfurt, Germany's largest airport.
The UFO union called on cabin crew to strike from 4 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday as it seeks a 15% pay increase and a one-time payment of 3,000 euros per employee to offset inflation.
A similar walkout by cabin crew on flights departing from Munich is to follow on Wednesday.