Three Russian hockey players: from the war to the Swiss ice

He has found a new home in Biel. The contract with the EHCB until 2025 gives him security. What are simple facts for hockey players have a more moving meaning for Alexandr Yakovenko. Born in Kazakhstan, the defender also holds Russian citizenship. His father Sergei is Russian. But since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, nothing has been the same as before.

In his father’s home country, Yakovenko made his first mark on the statistics in 2014/15 as a junior with Traktor Chelyabinsk. Sergei Yakovenko still lives there with Alexandr’s half-brother. The 46-year-old former defender is the assistant coach of the women’s team Belye Medvedi in Chelyabinsk. The mother lives with two half-sisters in Kazakhstan. The defender of Biel has not seen his parents for more than a year. The war separates families, including Yakovenko’s.

Yakovenko knows his privilege

“My father would like to see some of my matches,” Alexandr Yakovenko told the Bieler Tagblatt, “but it’s hard to get a visa. Hard to travel around. And hard to see the family. The uncertainty is big.” According to the newspaper, the 24-year-old skipped a trip to Russia last summer for fear of being drafted into the army. He hopes to do it this summer. And that the world will be a better place in 2025.

He keeps in touch with his family through social media. Yakovenko, who joined EHCB in 2021 from Jukurit (Fin), is aware that as a Russian he has the privilege of being able to practice his sport abroad. “But it’s special to be the only Russian player in the top division here,” he says. In the National League, the defender is actually the only Russian, but not in Swiss ice hockey.

Escape to the West instead of returning to Russia

Lyss Roman Kobelev (29) and Denis Kotschetkow (42) play in the MyHockey League at SC. Her story is dramatic, the Russian invasion made her flee. Both were engaged in Ukraine last season: defender Kobelev at Donbass Donetsk, ex-KHL star Kochetkov after a four-year career break as a player-coach at Altair Druzhkivka, another top club in Donetsk.

After the outbreak of war, the league’s activities in Ukraine were halted. Kobelev and Kochetkov meet other Russians playing in Ukraine. Four go back home as their families wait. Kobelev and Kochetkov make a different decision: to flee west. They actually describe their departure in the “Bieler Tagblatt”.

In mid-March they leave Kramatorsk, a large city in Donetsk Oblast. We continue by train to Lviv and finally by bus to the Ukrainian-Polish border. You have to cross this on foot. They can only take what they can carry. Your hockey equipment is one of them. They then continue to Warsaw by bus before taking the train to Zurich via Vienna.

The two are assigned to the canton of Fribourg and get a shared apartment. That they end up at SC Lyss is purely coincidental. They ask different clubs, Lyss is one of them. This is where the hockey professionals live with protection status S for “need for protection”, which is initially valid for one year. The premiums for health insurance are covered. They cannot access their accounts in Russia from Switzerland. They have been living in Lyss since last fall.

Russian engagement causes criticism

When MHL club Lyss was criticized after the signing of the two Russians last summer for why an amateur club could afford two import players of this size, president Mathias Müller insisted: “One of our sponsors will buy you a car deliver. The club pays for the gas. Kobelev and Kochetkov earn about 500 francs a month, no more.” But the sporting criticism of the competition was even louder. “It was feared that it would disrupt the championship,” said Müller. Discussions flare up at a league meeting, the appeal to the humanity silences the critics: “These are not just Russians, but people who have fled. This is also about integration,” says Müller.

You can’t blame them for Russian athletes not taking a stand on the war. “It’s hard enough for them, they’ve left a lot behind,” says Lyss coach and ex-NL player Serge Meyer (46). Therefore, out of respect, the topic of war and the political situation were never discussed in the team. Kobelev makes it clear in the “Bieler Tagblatt” that they don’t want to talk about the war: “I have Russian friends and I have Ukrainian friends. That hasn’t changed.”

Kotschetkow, who won the Spengler Cup final with Minsk in 2009 and scored the winning goal against Davos, only adds: “It’s not our conflict, it’s none of our business. We just want to play hockey.” And they can at SC Lyss.

Source : Blick