Some are fleeing to neighboring countries in fear, others are still seeking safe haven. And no one can find a way to volunteer at home, counting the days in prayer. But in any case, people living in Ukraine have been living in fear since the Russian invasion last Thursday.

The situation is the same for former Portuguese coach Paolo Fonseca of the Ukrainian club Shekhter Donetsk! He was unable to leave the city as Russian troops closed Kyiv's airport. In a conversation with the Portuguese daily Journal de Noticia, the 46-year-old Portuguese described his fears, anxieties, and prayers.

source

Fonseca spent the first 11 years of his coaching career in Portugal, starting in 1991 with a 14-year playing career. He was Porto's coach in the 2013-14 season, but his name spread as a coach in Portugal in the 2015-16 season as Braga won the Portuguese Cup.

Shekhter looked at him. Shekhter took Fonseca to Russia's Zenit St. Petersburg after spending 12 seasons at the club with their legendary coach Mirita Lucescu.

The three seasons that he coached Shekhter were sorely missed by Fonseca. Fonseca Shekhter has won the league and cup in each of the three seasons, taking Shekhter to the last 16 of the 2017-18 Champions League, Pep Guardiola's Manchester City 2-1 defeat in the group stage of the service!

After leaving Shekhter, he also coached Roma for two seasons, but Fonseka has been unemployed since June 2021. Yet he lived in Kyiv. Just pull Shekhter? No, he also has the tension of the mind there.

Fonseka's wife is Ukrainian. The couple also has one child. Fonseka, his wife, and son were in Kyiv when Russian troops stormed it on Thursday. And could not get out of Kyiv.

‘I had booked a flight for today, but now it is no longer possible to get out of here. "Because the airports have been shut down, the air traffic has been stopped," Fonseca told the Portuguese newspaper from a hotel in Kyiv yesterday. Not only Fonseca, but every footballer of Shekhter is also in that hotel!

If it is not possible by air, it can be tried by road, but in the reality of war, it is not possible at the moment. "At the moment, leaving Kyiv is only possible by road, and everyone is trying to do that," said Fonseka. The town near the Polish border is trying to get to L'viv. But (everyone tries to get in the car) the road is completely impassable. Because it is not possible to drive so many cars on the road at once. The queues of cars stuck on the road have become much longer. The car will run on it, there is no gas supply! '

All in all, the only way open now is to pray in front of the Fonseca. The helpless Fonseka said, "All we can do now is pray that we will not be bombed. Honestly, I don't know how to get out of here! '

"I woke up at five in the morning to hear the sound of five explosions," said Fonseka. This is the worst nightmare of my life! ' It is not clear when it will end.

Fonseca, therefore, prays, ‘We have no choice but to wait now. We can only hope that we will be lucky as we are to get out of Ukraine, to be able to put this war behind us. '