Premier League have given Manchester City permission to allow the 23-year-old attacking midfielder to train with the club.
City have opened their doors to Ukrainian international Andrii Kravchuk to train with the club in light of the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine. The move has been completed with the consent of the Premier League.
It was City full-back – and Kravchuk’s compatriot – Oleksandr Zinchenko who first initiated the matter. Zinchenko, who has been with City for nearly six years now, knows Kravchuk from the time the duo played together at the youth level for Shakhtar Donetsk.
When the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, Kravchuk was on a training camp in Turkey with his Russian club Torpedo Moscow. The player has terminated his contract in Russia and has fled to Manchester in England. He will now train with City’s U23 squad for the remainder of the season.
“I felt really uncomfortable. I was playing in a country that invaded my homeland. Leaving the club was the only decision. People in Ukraine would not understand me if I continued to play there.”
Kravchuk said about playing for a Russian club.
Although Kravchuk is now safe in Manchester, his family is still in Kyiv, where his brother Oleks has joined the country’s armed forces in the fight against Russian troops.
“I tell him every day how proud I am of him, for not only protecting our family but the whole country and the Ukrainian people. He is staying and fighting,”
Kravchuk explained.
“I’m really worried. I am in groups on my phone and always receiving messages with bombing alerts. Every time those alerts come through I am so anxious. Your only thought is that my family can die.”
Kravchuk also mentioned that he’s extremely grateful that City have allowed him to train with them and also expressed his thankfulness to Zinchenko:.
“The past few weeks and months have been so difficult, but to be back on the pitch means so much to me,”
he said.
