Brazilian footballers manage to leave Ukraine
The saga of Brazilian footballers trying to leave Ukraine amid the Russian military invasion has come to an end - or it is close to it - for some, but still very complicated for others. On Sunday (Feb. 27), side Busanello (ex-Chapecoense), and forwards Felipe Pires (ex-Palmeiras) and Bill (ex-Flamengo), all Dnipro-1 players, arrived in Brazil. The first two players landed in São Paulo and the third one in Rio de Janeiro.
The trio, who left the city of Dnipro (446 kilometers from Kiev), started the return trip after crossing the border with Romania, last Saturday (Feb. 26). They traveled most of the way by car, but they had to walk some distance. On Instagram, Busanello's wife Isabella published a photo of her daughter Isis smiling, and the message: "Happy because my daddy is already in Brazil". And Bill posted he loves Ukraine and asked for prayers to the country.
“Thanks God, I'm home with my family. Now it's time to relax, rest mentally and physically, because it was very exhausting. Something that will be hard to forget. Now we hope the other families get out of there as soon as possible, so that this nightmare ends,” wrote Felipe Pires in his Instagram stories.
The group of football players from Shakthar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev, and their families who were in the bunker of a hotel in Kiev, left Ukraine on Sunday after a train journey to the city of Chernivtsi (535 kilometers from the capital), which had been started on Saturday (Feb. 26). From there they went to the border with Moldova, where one part of the group stayed and the other went to Romania in order to return to Brazil.
Among the athletes are midfielder Pedrinho (ex-Corinthians), defender Marlon (ex-Fluminense), and forwards David Neres (ex-São Paulo) and Júnior Moraes (ex-Santos). All playing for Shakthar which has a total of 13 Brazilian players in the team.
Júnior Moraes has Ukrainian nationality and had played for the national team. His father Aluísio Guerreiro informed Agência Brasil News Agency his son is expected to arrive in Brazil on Monday night (Feb. 28).
