On October 2 in Trnava, Slovakia, before the Ukraine – Northern Ireland match as part of the group stage of the 2026/27 UEFA Nations League, players of both national teams were escorted onto the pitch by 15 children of Ukrainian defenders. Their parents went through or are going through rehabilitation after injuries at centers of the national RECOVERY network.
“Hand in Hand with a Dream” is a social project of the Ukrainian Association of Football, created to support the children of service members of the Defense Forces of Ukraine and children from socially vulnerable categories. Participants of the project get a chance that few people have: to escort players of the Ukraine national team onto the pitch before home matches. In this way, the UAF expresses gratitude to the families of defenders, supports children during the war and gives them a moment they will remember for the rest of their lives.
The trip for the children was organized by the Ukrainian Association of Football and the RECOVERY project, founded by Victor and Olena Pinchuk to support the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine. For many of them, it was their first opportunity to visit a large stadium and watch a match of the Ukraine national team live.
The match day began for the children and their families with a tour of Bratislava. And before the match, they had a meeting that many of the children had dreamed of — with the Ukraine national team. Special surprises were prepared for the children there: each child received a personalized jersey, which they immediately put on, and a ball with the autograph of UAF President Andriy Shevchenko. The children happily collected the signatures of the national team players on these balls.
Among those who walked onto the pitch was ten-year-old Sofiia Arkhipova from Odesa. She practices dancing and swimming, dreams of learning to play the piano and has long been interested in football. However, she had never been to a real match before. Her father, Oleksandr, serves in the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine. After a shoulder injury, he is going through rehabilitation at RECOVERY based at the “Arkadiia” sanatorium in Odesa. Together with his daughter, they love traveling and discovering new cities. This time, their joint trip brought them to Bratislava.
Even before the match, Sofiia knew exactly whom she wanted to escort onto the pitch: “I really want to escort Yarmolenko, very, very much.”
And the dream came true: Sofiia walked onto the pitch holding Andriy Yarmolenko’s hand.
“My dream came true, I escorted Yarmolenko! I have never been to a match, thank you for the opportunity for me to be at the football match,” — the girl shares her impressions.
Seven-year-old Miia Nikolenko came from Vinnytsia. Her father calls her a real storm of emotions: Miia is curious, has a strong character and, at the age of seven, has already earned an 8th kyu in karate. For her family, football is a special story, as Miia’s father, Oleh, played for more than 10 years. Oleh served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine from 2023, and after a severe injury, he went through rehabilitation at the RECOVERY center in Vinnytsia.
Like Sofiia, Miia attended a football match for the first time:
“I have never been to a football match. The purpose of the trip is to watch, to walk out with someone. I would like to escort Mykolenko.”
Miia walked onto the pitch together with Northern Ireland national team player Trai Hume.
Six-year-old Melaniia Bondar came from Khmelnytskyi. Her father, Serhii, was injured back in 2015 and still feels the consequences of the injury, so he is currently going through another rehabilitation course at RECOVERY. Melaniia’s mother, Olha, served in a military hospital, where she and Serhii met. Melaniia has been swimming since she was six months old and easily finds common ground with both children and adults. “In this, she is more like me, because our dad is not very talkative,” — Olha jokes.
Melaniia escorted her namesake — Ukraine national team defender Valerii Bondar — onto the pitch.
After the opening ceremony of the match, the children joined their parents in the stands and cheered for the National Team.
The trip was made possible thanks to the Ukrainian Association of Football and the national network of RECOVERY rehabilitation centers.
*“UAF Foundation” is a charitable foundation established by the Ukrainian Association of Football that implements social projects, using the unifying power of football to bring about positive changes in society. The Foundation’s main areas of activity include adaptive football, grassroots children’s football, women’s football, and mental and physical rehabilitation projects through football.
*RECOVERY is a national network of rehabilitation centers for wounded service members. The project was founded by Victor and Olena Pinchuk to support the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine. Today, 20 RECOVERY centers operate in Ukraine, where military personnel receive rehabilitation care free of charge. More than 57,000 service members have already gone through rehabilitation at the network’s centers.