‘Many players have stayed to defend our country’

Arkhytska usually helps to grow the sport but is now focused on the 3,000 rugby players involved in the war

Iryna Arkhytska’s role as the secretary general of the Ukraine Rugby Union is no longer focussed on growing the sport in the country but revolves around gathering information from her temporary home in Spain on the 3,000 rugby players now involved in the war with Russia.

Arkhytska has become one of an estimated 3.5 million refugees forced to flee Ukraine after the Russian invasion and made the difficult journey from Kyiv to the safety of Poland and is now based in Madrid with her 13-year-old daughter, Daria. From Spain she is trying to stay in contact with her husband, Illia, who remained in the capital, and the Ukrainian rugby community that has joined the defence of their country.

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Ukraine has 42 rugby clubs with the