STORY: Ukraine War Football - Ukraine football fans watch game in Kyiv basement

LENGTH: 01:49

FIRST RUN: 2356

RESTRICTIONS:

TYPE: English/Natsound

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

STORY NUMBER: 4382501

DATELINE: 1 June 2022 - Kyiv

SHOTLIST:

RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Kyiv, Ukraine – 1 June 2022

1. Various of Kyiv residents chanting ahead of Ukraine's football national team match against Scotland

2. Fans cheering during match

3. Various of fans watching match

4. Fans cheering

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Oleksii Safin, voice actor:

"It's another fight. It's a good fight, just like the fight we have right now with Russians. It's some other type of the fight, but the fight where we can show that we can do it nicely, we can do it good. We gonna win anyway."

6. Various of fans cheering

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Oleksii Safin, voice actor:

"I'm hoping that these guys are sportsmen can show the strength of Ukraine, not only on the battlefield, but also in sports."

8. Various of fans celebrating

STORYLINE:

In Kyiv, soccer fans had the war-time night-time curfew and an air-raid alarm to contend with as they gathered to cheer on their national team to a 3-1 win over Scotland, furthering Ukraine's emotion-filled quest to qualify for the World Cup.

The Beer & Meet bar in downtown Kyiv got around the curfew by offering fans the possibility to stay there until 5 am, when the night-time restriction on movement ends.

The curfew kicked in at 11 pm, before the start of the second half of the pulsating playoff semi-final.

Police swung by the bar in a patrol car a few minutes before kick-off, asking fans who had gathered outside to go down into the drinking hole's basement rooms, because of an air-raid warning.

The bar's walls are decorated with photos of fans taken in happier times, before the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

This match was the national team's first since war broke out.

Banging a big white drum, fan Leon Vesselkov led other supporters in rousing chants of "Ukraine!"

Just under two dozen supporters spread over three rooms – all lined with TVs that showed the match -- washed down the war-time interlude of sporting pleasure and national pride with rounds of beer and plates of smoked meats, fried cheese, fried onion rings and other nibbles.

Oleksii Safin, 40, who works as a voice actor, stood with his right hand over his heart as he belted out the national anthem before kick-off.

He and other supporters erupted in joyous celebration when Ukraine opened the score.

But the war raging in the east of the country wasn't forgotten.

The backdrop of war meant that the match, to them, was far more than a simple sporting encounter and the 3-1 victory far more than just a step closer to the World Cup in Qatar.

"It's a good fight, just like the fight that we have right now with the Russians," Safin said.

"We can show that we can do it."

AP video shot by: Sasha Stashevskyi

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