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Game of the Ukrainian national team in the World Cup qualifier in Glasgow, June 2022 (icon image)
Photo: IMAGO/Colin Poultney / IMAGO/Pro Sports Images
Despite the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the national football association wants to restart the championship in August.
The decision to restart the Premier League was made together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, association president Andrei Pavelko told the AP news agency.
He also spoke to the leaders of Fifa and Uefa to find a safe way for the country's national teams to host their home games.
Ukraine was forced to suspend league play due to the Russian attack at the end of February.
However, as Russian forces moved east and south, fighting near the capital Kyiv and elsewhere has died down.
Sport is optimistic that sport can resume to lift spirits in the nation as it hopes to qualify for the World Cup with an away win in Wales on Sunday.
"I spoke to our President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the importance of football as a distraction," Pavelko said in an interview with the AP news agency, surrounded by Ukraine jerseys and a tactics board in the Cardiff squad.
“From children to old people, everyone is focused on the war.
Every day they receive information about deaths, about the effects of the war.« Football can help to think about the future again.
A future where players in Ukraine could be back on the field and creating uplifting sporting moments of joy.
"That's why we decided with the president to resume the Ukrainian championship in August," Pavelko said through a translator.
“We will play at all levels in Ukraine.
So in the first and second professional leagues and in the women's championship.«
Details are still open – and the venues are unclear
Pavelko met Zelenskyy before leaving Ukraine for Glasgow, where he attended the World Cup play-off semifinals against Scotland on Wednesday.
Pavelko then met with Fifa President Gianni Infantino in Paris and Uefa President Aleksander Ceferin in Ljubljana.
"I informed them that we will resume the wartime championships in Ukraine ... under the bombs and we count on their support," Pavelko said.
"We're just discussing the details."
The government bans men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving Ukraine to keep them available for war missions.
Despite this, footballers were allowed to travel abroad to play for teams, while Pavelko was allowed to fly to important meetings.
However, last month he broadcast live by phone from a stadium in Chernihiv that had been attacked by Russia to the Uefa Congress in Vienna to show the damage done.
It is not yet clear which parts of the country will be used for league matches.
"We will talk to our military committee and the government about how to organize this safely," Pavelko added.
Shakhtar Donetsk were top of the table when the season was suspended in February and officially declared over in April, earning the club a spot in the lucrative group stage of the Champions League next season.
Shakhtar Donetsk has lived in exile with uncertainty for eight years.
The side have not played in Donetsk since 2014, when they were forced out by a Russian-backed conflict in their home region of eastern Ukraine, which remains the scene of fierce fighting.
ara/dpa/AP