Shakhtar boss recounts Ukraine escape

Shakhtar Donetsk's director of football Darijo Srna has detailed his harrowing 36-hour escape from Kyiv, after the club's squad and staff were forced to seek shelter in a hotel for two days during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The former Croatia international has also detailed how he was able to secure save passage out of the country for his players thanks to his friend and Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin.

Srna and Shakhtar have been based in the Ukraine capital since 2014, when the original conflict in the Donbass region forced the club from it's home.

After bombing began on February 24, Srna and Shakhtar's chief executive consulted one and other before agreeing to get the club's personel to meet at their team hotel.

All foreigners and the Ukrainian players with nowhere else to go arrived, a total of around 65 people.

Originally, they all spoke to the embassies of their own countries, but were given little in the way of meaningful assistance.

"The club proposed two buses for everyone but there was nobody who could say to you: 'Yes, everything will be OK on the road'," Srna told the Guardian.

"On the second day the embassies were all saying they couldn't help, it wasn't secure, we had to stay in the hotel. That's when you almost start to panic."

A number of the club's Brazilian stars had also brought their children. Amid the din of air sirens, Srna called Ceferin to help him come up with a solution.

Srna and fellow Croatian Ognjen Vukojevic, the assistant at Dynamo Kyiv, had both been told by their country's embassy that they needed to leave Ukraine immediately.

As a result Srna embarked on a car journey towards Zagreb with two friends and Shakhtar's academy goalkeeping coach - an Italian national.

They took three hours to pass the club's training base, which is a journey that usually takes around 20 minutes. He was in regular contact with one of the players — Brazilian born Junior Moraes — to update all back at the hotel on their progress. Srna said he could hear explosions going off as they crawled out of the city.

Ceferin came through for the rest of the squad, as did Ukraine's FA president Andriy Pavelko. The Brazilians and their families were put on a train heading west, while the Italian staff - which included head coach Roberto De Zerbi, were also helped out of the country.

"Ceferin and Pavelko did a huge job," added Srna. "They showed that they are not just top presidents but top people too."

All Ukranian players — barring those with three children or more — have been required to stay in the country.

Srna said all are still safe and even finding time to train individually to occupy their thoughts.

Srna is no stranger to conflict, having experienced it in Croatian war of independence and previously in Donetsk in 2014.

On his return to Croatia, he has been able to secure accommodation for some the Shakhtar's academy players aged between 10 and 17. — Daily Mail.