Olympic biathlon champion Elena Pidhrushna said that for safety reasons, many biathletes of the Ukrainian national team are not allowed to return home during the season.. According to her, we are talking not only about logistical difficulties, but also about a direct threat to life.

Pidhrushna recalled that almost all the training of Ukrainian biathletes takes place abroad, and this has been the case throughout her entire career. She explained that foreign colleagues were often surprised by the lack of full-fledged infrastructure in Ukraine and the fact that the team spends up to 250 days a year outside the country, while Europeans only need a few hours to return home.

Separately, she focused on the situation with athletes from front-line regions. According to Pidhrushna, biathletes who live in Sumy or Chernigov are “simply not allowed to go home” at the height of the season, since “it’s not a fact that they will survive.”. She admitted that the very thought of this sounds creepy, but this is the reality in which the team has been living for many years.

Pidgrushna, on the Youtube channel " He said that the last time he was home was in the summer and plans to return only after the end of the season, because now there is a risk of “simply not returning back”.

On October 7, Russian occupiers carried out drone strikes on a critical infrastructure facility in Sumy. As a result of the attack, three high-rise buildings, residential premises and a trolleybus were damaged.