Winnipeg goalkeeper trades soccer jersey for army uniform in Ukraine

For a Winnipeg goalkeeper, a trip to his birth country of Ukraine to sign with a professional soccer club has turned into something else entirely.

Svyatik Artemenko, 22, who was born in the major Ukrainian city of Odesa and moved to Winnipeg with his family as a toddler, said war broke out the day after he signed his first pro contract in Europe.

“My mindset was to keep performing and improving myself on the field,” he said, “but the next morning, when I woke up and I saw the news and I saw everything going on outside, that kind of went down the drain quickly.”

Artemenko, who had most recently played semi-pro soccer in Guelph, Ont., for Guelph United FC, as well as a stint with Winnipeg’s Valour FC, said he decided to enlist in the Ukrainian military as soon as the war began.

After waiting two-and-a-half hours the first day, he was told Ukraine wasn’t accepting international soldiers, but as the war continued to escalate, he got a phone call from the military letting him know he could enlist.

View image in full screen

“My safety and my health is the last thing I’m worried about right now,” Artemenko said.

“The first thing I’m worried about is the safety of my family members that are still currently here in Odesa. My other family members, the ones that are under 18 years old and over 60, they’ve gone to Poland. At the moment, they’ve been evacuated.

“I’m (also) concerned about the freedom of my country, because we, Ukraine, has always been a country … and at the moment, for it to keep being a country, this is what I need to do.”

Despite his success on the soccer pitch, Artemenko brings some military experience to his unexpected new job. In Winnipeg, he served with the Canadian military reserves and went through basic military qualification, but he said he’s never had to use a weapon to defend himself in combat.

“I’m glad that I was in the reserves and got a little bit of training that can prepare me — a little bit — for what’s going on, what’s happening here.”

So far, he said, Odesa has been spared the type of action other major Ukrainian cities, like the capital Kyiv, have seen.

“Just outside of Odesa, just today we had a building get exploded by military planes. But there’s not a lot of action.

“I mean, here and there, we arrest a few Russian soldiers who are under disguise, some shootings. But it’s nothing like Kyiv.”

Valour FC’s goalkeeper coach, Patrick Di Stefani, told Global News that the decision to defend his country was absolutely in character for Artemenko.

“We were in contact because he was he was on a tryout in Ukraine, in the second division,” said Di Stefani.

“When when the rumour of war started, then we start to talk. And you know, I was telling him, ‘Svyatik, just be careful. Are you sure that’s what you want to do, stay there?’

“I was not surprised at the decision at all — that’s exactly him. He’s always been very patriotic, and although he’s Canadian, he considers Ukraine his nation too.”

Di Stefani said Artemenko told him most of his new Ukrainian teammates had also enlisted, and the goalie wanted to do his part.

“He felt very, very comfortable with his decision. No fear, which is him —  that describes Svyatik.”

1:56 Polish community reacts to Russia invasion