A night of high emotion as Ukrainian refugees head to Aviva for Ireland game

In other circumstances tonight’s Nations League match at the Aviva Stadium between Ireland and Ukraine would be a chance for Ukrainians living in Ireland to thank their team for qualifying for the World Cup.

Sadly, Wales’s 1-0 victory on Saturday night meant Ukraine’s dreams of qualifying for Qatar ended and it will be a more subdued team and supporters who take to the field tonight.

Nevertheless, like all occasions involving Ukraine nowadays, it will still be a night of high emotion at the Aviva Stadium. Since the Russian invasion in February, 33,000 refugees have landed in Ireland. Some 2,000 have been given tickets for the match and others have bought their own tickets.

Among those who will be attending the match are Matvii Rybkin (12) and Illia Sydorenko (8) from the city of Zhytomir, which has been badly damaged by Russian shelling.

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They came to Ireland with their mothers on March 26th and are attending St Peter’s National School in Dunboyne, Co Meath. Their fathers are still in Ukraine.

The boys are “total football fans” according to their guardian Susan Ward, who has been housing them since they arrived in Ireland in Kilbride, Co Meath.

On Wednesday they talked to Ukrainian and Everton defender Vitalily Mykolenko via the mobile phone of Ireland captain Seamus Coleman. Ironically, Illia supports Everton’s great rivals Merseyside rival Liverpool. Matvii supports Juventus.

“You have no idea the excitement of it all, “ said Ms Ward. “One of their dads is mad about football. It was in the Ukrainian media and all over social media,. They were delighted.”

There will be 10 Ukrainian mascots at the match tonight all of them who have arrived in Ireland seeking refuge since the invasion. Five of the Ukrainian mascots are living in Dublin and five in Clare.

Kostya Hlihan (11), who is one of them, arrived in Ireland just four days after the invasion started with his mother and brother David (4).

Halyna’s sister is married to Irishman Garrett Mullen. They live in Balbriggan, north Dublin.

“He is so excited. He is really into his football. He reminds me of me when I was a kid. He’s excited about Panini stickers and things like that. He plays with Balbriggan FC. The club have been great for accepting children from refugee backgrounds. They went out of their way to bring them in.”

The brothers’ father remains back in Ukraine. “At this stage he has been here three months. They are very close to their father. He is still there in Ukraine and it sis really hard. Although they are constant anxiety to go back or to stay,” he said.

“He goes to school every day. He has got friends in football and football is his main outlet, but he would like to be back in Ukraine.”

Saturday’s disappointment and the exertions of the semi-final play-off against Scotland means Ukraine will not be fielding a full strength side on Wednesday. Star strikers Roman Yaremchuk of Benfica and Andriy Yarmolenko of West Ham United have been omitted from the matchday squad.

Yarmolenko’s unfortunate deflection from Gareth Bale’s freekick gave Wales a 1-0 win. Despite that, Yarmolenko remains Koysta’s favourite Ukrainian player.

Kickoff between Ireland v Ukraine is at 7.45pm.