Viktor Claesson and Eliezer Sherbatov told of their escape

Huge people have fled Ukraine because of the war of aggression in Russia.

So did the Ukrainian hockey series played in the UHSL Eliezer Sherbatov. Sherbatov represented HC Mariupol.

Sherbatov, 30, was with his team preparing for a away game last Thursday in Kramatorsk when a bomb exploded outside the hotel.

– At five in the morning I was asleep and heard a bang. I have never heard such a loud voice. After that, everything started to vibrate. A few meters away, the war had begun, Sherbatov told TSN.

The head coach of Sherbatov’s team invited everyone to the meeting for breakfast, where he said the war had broken out.

Eventually, Sherbatov and a few other foreign players decided to go to the local train station. It was not possible to return home to Mariupol because Russian soldiers were coming and the city had already been bombed.

The players traveled by train to Lviv, but the train was late.

– We got a call to shoot for the trains. The third guy who was supposed to leave with us said he wasn’t going to leave because he didn’t want to die. That there would be a 50-50 chance.

– If you go on a train, there is a 50-50 chance that you will die. What would you do then, what decision? You ice, you go to the bomb shelter and hope no one puts a grenade inside the bomb shelter. Or you take the train and have a 50-50 chance of surviving.

Sherbatov weighed these things and decided to get on the train after talking to his father. The Canadian embassy could not help and urged to go to the bomb shelter.

The train traveled through Kramatorsk and Kharkiv, after which it traveled west and through Kiev. All of these cities have been the subject of heavy fire.

– I called that train the Death Train, because every second I think I’ll be shot. There was an army everywhere and you didn’t know what it was.

After arriving in Lviv, Sherbatov, with the help of the Latvian embassy and Israeli volunteers, got on a bus with children and the elderly to Poland.

Canadian-Israeli Sherbatov is now in Canada.

– I thought I’d never see my family again. I hugged my daughter who was sleeping and I was just there and crying.

The story continues after the picture.

From Russia to Sweden

Top soccer player Viktor Claesson still represented the Krasnodar team playing in the Russian league just over a week ago.

Claesson terminated his contract with Krasnodar and fled the country with his wife.

Claesson returned to her homeland on Friday. Earlier in the week, club head coach Daniel Farke left the club.

– It turned very hectic. It started with the departure of the coaches and all the foreign players also wanted out. That’s when it felt like a sinking ship, Claesson said Aftonbladetille.

Claesson said Krasnodar understood the seriousness of the situation and let the players leave. The club also helped players out of Russia.

Krasnodar arranged a bus ride for the players, their wives and children to Sochi. The seven-hour journey along the serpentine road began.

– Pregnant wives and children with travel sickness vomited on the bus.

From Sochi, the players got on a plane that flew to Istanbul. Krasnodar had even arranged for a flight. The trip back to Sweden took a total of one and a half days.

– We will never forget all that stress and bus ride to Sochi. It felt like we were fleeing the war, even though there was no such thing in Krasnodar.

The city of Krasnodar is located near the Ukrainian border.

– I understand that this cannot be compared to what people in Ukraine are experiencing.