The interview request had been made several days ago. But Dmytro Gunko, Ukrainian handball player who plays in Pontault-Combault, who is struggling to move up to the first division, “did not want to talk” about the situation in his country, bombarded by the armed forces of Vladimir Putin. The left-back was concerned, in particular, about the situation of his sister, who lived in Kharkiv, in the east of the country, a city devastated by Russian bombs and had difficulty thinking about handball. Quieter since his family is safe, he agreed to answer questions from 20 minutes.
Twenty days after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, how are you?
Now, things are better psychologically, because the first days were very hard, in particular because of the situation of my family, who was in Ukraine, and in particular my sister. She was in Kharkiv, which was targeted by the Russians. When the bombardments started, she called me at 5 am in a panic to shout “War, war”. You, at 5 o’clock in the morning, at home, you don’t know what to answer. She decided, with her one-year-old baby, her husband and her mother-in-law, to leave as soon as possible for my mother, in the West, near Poland. And now they are all in Poland, hosted by people. When I found out they had crossed the border, I was relieved to know they were safe. It is the most important.
You were born in the Lugansk region, recognized as a “people’s republic” by Vladimir Putin. Did the so-called pro-Russian residents change their view of Putin after the invasion?
It is complicated. One day, when everything is calm, someone comes to your house and says: “Yes, it’s for you, we’re trying to do all this for you, it’s not war, we’re not trying to recover this part of Ukraine”. But the guy still comes with a gun and he tells you stories, telling you that he’s not Russian, that he doesn’t have a flag and that he comes to help the local population. But the people there didn’t ask for anything, they just want to have their normal life.
You also played in Odessa, a strategic port on the Black Sea, where there could be a Russian landing in the next few hours…
There is especially the mother of my wife, quite old, who is there and who does not want to leave. She has been offered several times to get it back, but she doesn’t want to. She could go to Moldova, which is close, but she wonders what she would do there. As a result, since the army is often placed close to her home, about fifty meters away in a field, she sometimes cooks for them, the army also comes to her house to do things.
How is it going with your former Russian teammates, with whom you played in Russia, in Astrakhan or Perm?
I keep in touch with some in Perm. When I speak with them, young people, they are fully aware of what is happening in Ukraine, despite the censorship. They understand the situation, but it’s complicated for them to do something on their side, because they are afraid of reprisals. A lot of people get arrested. Afterwards, it depends on the people, if they want, they can protest.
Have you considered going to Ukraine to take up arms?
Honestly, no. In my head, I still asked myself the question, saying to myself: “I am here, I am not doing anything, what can I do to help? But, at the same time, I am not a soldier. In my head it was very logical: if you know how to do the thing, you do it. Otherwise, you don’t. Everyone does what they can.
Today, you, from Pontault-Combault, are you organizing things to help the Ukrainians?
Our president told me that we were going to see the mayor, who wanted to organize a collection for Ukraine. And my president’s wife [élue à la ville de Pontault-Combault] told me that if there were Ukrainians coming here, we could talk to them, help them. We are impressed that in a small town like this, there are so many people ready to give. This solidarity touched us a lot.
How, mentally, did you switch to handball mode, when you were thinking about the situation in Ukraine?
Frankly, I had no mind for handball at all. The first days after the Russian invasion, I was lost. I was even thinking of not going to train, of staying at home. We woke up at 5 am with my wife, we didn’t know what to do and we just read articles about the war. I really felt like I was sick. When you’re like that, you don’t want to move, you want to stay on your sofa, do nothing and calm down. But, in the end, I decided to go to training precisely so as not to think about the situation in Ukraine. At the gym, I also saw guys who looked at me and didn’t know what to say to support me.
How did it go between them and you?
It was hard, because it’s not a usual situation. Even I didn’t want to talk to people, because everyone knows what’s going on. Talking about the same thing every time is hard. I didn’t want to talk about it with anyone.
Did you receive many tokens of support?
The club has supported me and asks me every time if I need anything to tell them, they care about my family. I also had lots of messages from supporters, from Pontault and Cherbourg [son ancien club] who offered to host people from my family if needed. It touched me, because I’ve only been here for a year and I’m not necessarily very close to the supporters. There were also a lot of messages of support. But, even that, it’s complicated, because, each time, it makes you think of the situation in Ukraine. And it was also complicated for my wife, who was stressed, because she follows all the developments in the conflict on social networks. She couldn’t detach herself and told me each time, there’s this happening there, this happening elsewhere. At one point, I told her to put down her phone, because it was making her sick.