Ukraine are one of a number of sides coming into the men’s EuroHockey Indoor Championships in Leuven on the back of January’s Olympic qualifiers in Valencia.
As such, they will hope they can use that high intensity environment to their advantage and adapt quickly to the boards.
The biggest achievement of the national team was second place in the European Championship II (Turkey) in 2018 which earned them a first appearance in the top division in 2020.
That proved a tough experience as they finished in eighth place with five defeats from the competition, four of them in close-run battles.
It included a 3-2 defeat to group opponents Czechia, a 5-4 loss to Poland and a 10-7 setback against Belgium. Their other pool game is against Portugal who they beat 3-2 two years ago.
Five players play abroad: Dmytro Luppa (Poland), Bogdan Kovalenko (Austria), Andrii Koshelenko (Italy), Vitalii Shevchuk (Germany) and Vitalii Kalinchuk (Croatia).
The remainder of the panel hail from reigning national champions OKS SHVSM Vinnitsa.
Luppa captains the side and has a vast level of experience of over 15 years in the international arena and is looking forward to a seventh European indoor championship.
** To find out more about the tournament and buy tickets, go to the event website here: https://ehic2024.be/
** The EuroHockey focus is on a massive February of indoor hockey with events taking place on four consecutive weekends.
For fans around the world, it means lots of top class action to enjoy on EuroHockeyTV with the following top level tournaments all broadcast live on a pay-per-view basis or with an already purchased EHTV pass.
