For my money, it’s the most beautiful ground in the world.
War has renewed the Lobanovski stadium’s former glory.
Dinamo play here, not the Olimpiski, as do Zorya Luhansk, despite leaving Luhansk ten years back.
Continue reading Where the trees sing – Dinamo Kyiv 1 Shakhtar Donetsk 1
Never too late to do something for the first time so it’s embarrassing to sample operetta this late in life.
Lviv National Opera being the perfect place to start.
Not a sell-out – ticket was 400 hrivna, about £9.
Lviv’s lively street celebrations almost defy belief more than 550 days after Russia launched its crazed invasion.
Above, crowds gathered to banish the blues as a series of acts entertained citizens before the city suffered its first bomb attack shortly after I left for Kyiv.
This chap looks like he’s propping up the Lviv National Opera by himself.
He’s actually a war-inspired work of art by an Italian artist.
He’s just in the bottom left hand corner here.
It seemed like this was played on the moon, at any rate.
Obviously it wasn’t, just in case you were wondering. And there were no Clangers at this game. Honest. I went looking.
Ukraine Premier League (UPL) has been played behind closed doors since Russia’s invasion in February last year.
For Shakhtar, effectively evicted from Donetsk in 2014, it’s been life on the road ever since.
Continue reading Football on the moon – Shakhtar Donetsk 1 Obolon Kyiv 0
Wednesday 8pm: It’s as if there is no war – Lviv is celebrating itself.
Crowds throng the half-mile long piazza in front of the city’s opera house under the watchful eye of national poet Taras Shevchenko, looking down benignly from his plinth, and probably delighted by the spectacle.
Children scamper through the ornamental fountain; old men play backgammon with an intensity you can almost smell; babushki gossip, flashing their immaculate dentistry; Roma children as young as four try to sell you flowers.
A couple snog on one bench – unusual to see that in Ukraine – a sozzled alcoholic straddles the next one. He looks like he’s making love to it.
A girl sporting a T-shirt with the slogan Killer Tits (not in Cyrillic) scoffs candy floss with her boyfriend; teenage schoolgirls watch the musicians raptly, clinging together and grooming each other’s long tresses.
And then there’s what can only be described as the best street musicians in the world providing defiance/joy/inspiration.
Second time around, and it’s still the best show in the world.
Dakh Daughters Band headed to Lviv in Western Ukraine to play two concerts in what is regarded by many as the spiritual capital of the country.
Here Ukrainian is more widely spoken than Russian than in the east, which is regarded as more Russian.
WALES supporters bowed out in the last 16 stage of the Eurofans2012 tournament today.
Despite putting on a good showing after a very heavy night out, the team were beaten 3-1 by a useful Moldovan outfit who almost certainly got to bed a lot earlier than the Welsh side.
So for the fifth year in the row, the Welsh side left at an early stage but probably this was the best performance over the five years – both matches lost could have been won had chances been taken.
The Ukrainian-based competition in Lviv reaches its climax tomorrow with a final at 12.30pm before presentations in the city’s fan zone in the evening, and then the final of Euro 2012 in Kyiv.
About 30 Wales supporters are taking part in their fifth Eurofans tournament in Lviv.
After today’s matches, the squad visited a school in central Lviv to hand out football memorabilia, balls and clothes to youngsters. They also got a rendition of Mae Hen Wlad fy Nhadau.
Earlier in the day, the team played matches against Czech Republic fans and supporters of Slovakia in two 50-minute games.
Against the Czechs, the side lost 4-1, but came back strongly to defeat a poor Slovakia side 7-0, to earn a place in the last 16 of the tournament.
Miles from Nowhere 