It is the heart you notice first. Specifically, the way it is so clearly broken. And yet, the red marker ink does not bleed into the shirt’s white fabric.
Next, the letters, black and bold: Poltava.
Finally, the date, written by hand in block letters. The timestamp is not there for the players. No member of Ukrainian champions Vorskla Women needs to be reminded of what happened on September 3, 2024, the day Poltava — the club’s home in east-central Ukraine — was struck by two Russian ballistic missiles, killing at least 59 people and injuring more than 300 in one of the deadliest single attacks since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Less than 24 hours later, Vorskla players pulled their white shirts with their red broken hearts and black timestamps over their ponytails. They walked out onto a football pitch in Budapest where they met Latvian champions Riga, who wore shirts donning the same inscriptions. A Champions League first-round qualifying semi-final was meant to be played, despite the fact such an enterprise felt impossible, let alone appropriate.
It is this tension that sits at the heart of The Athletic’s two-hour conversation with Vorskla team-mates Tanya Levytska and Ania Davydenko and former player Iia Andrushchak, who is now manager of Vorskla men’s reserve…
