Marked for Kirill Samoilenko
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Dec 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Victoriia Sumy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match12 Dec 2026
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad14 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Victoriia Sumy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Dec 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match5 Dec 2026
5 matches without a win for LNZ
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around LNZ are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at LNZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Drambaiev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Mateo Anaya in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I did not go to Victoriia Sumy to sit and watch. I want to come back to LNZ and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 15 matches say the rest.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Mateo Anaya gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad7 Dec 2026
10 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Oleksii Palamarchuk has given nobody the chance.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A defender's afternoon for Denys Kuzyk
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Victoriia Sumy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Aitor Morcillo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kirill Samoilenko, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Diego Sabando and Victoriia Sumy agree another 3 years.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 7.64 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Victoriia Sumy had the best player on the pitch.
Match5 Dec 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match1 Oct 2026
LNZ do the business in Europe
0‑0. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and LNZ came through the finding-out well against NK Domzale.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 32. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at LNZ
Muharrem Jashari was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 22. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Oleksandr Drambaiev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Victoriia Sumy to sit and watch. I want to come back to LNZ and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Yehor Tverdokhlib’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to LNZ.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleh Horin, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Oct 2026
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Victoriia Sumy are no longer polite ones.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Victoriia Sumy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Dynamo Kyiv will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Oleksii Rybak has pre-agreed a move to Victoriia Sumy, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 202% of everything Victoriia Sumy earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Victoriia Sumy will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ihnat Pushkutsa named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ihnat Pushkutsa is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Sep 2026
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Probiy kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Victoriia Sumy will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Match26 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Victoriia Sumy are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.06 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Victoriia Sumy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danylo Knysh is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andriy Dediaev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Victoriia Sumy, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match12 Sep 2026
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Aitor Morcillo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match12 Sep 2026
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kirill Samoilenko, and the manager let it.
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Chornomorets, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Luiz Carlos knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luiz Carlos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Aug 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LNZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market24 Aug 2026
Kudrivka come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and LNZ did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at LNZ
Muharrem Jashari was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market24 Aug 2026
Adam Yakubu has left for Dynamo Kyiv in a $440.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Oleksandr Drambaiev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Oleh Horin gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Victoriia Sumy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.59. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Victoriia Sumy
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
14 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Market24 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Oleksandr Lytvynenko has his answer from Victoriia Sumy; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Muharrem Jashari and LNZ agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Denys Kuzyk falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yehor Tverdokhlib, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Kirill Samoilenko again, and this time the name on the line is Podillia. LNZ are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match8 Aug 2026
Three points for LNZ, 1‑0 the final word against Obolon in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market3 Aug 2026
LNZ say no — this time
The offer from CSKA 1948 for Dmytro Ledvii was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Oleksii Palamarchuk commits to LNZ for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at LNZ
Muharrem Jashari was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Oleksandr Drambaiev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match1 Aug 2026
LNZ get the job done against Polissia
A 1‑0 win over Polissia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 19. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.