Marked for Vasyl Burtnyk
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match12 Dec 2026
Still nobody has beaten Zorya
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Zorya
Jordan 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.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
17 appearances away from home and 12 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout14 Dec 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.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
“I watch every Zorya game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Victoriia Sumy runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Marked 7.37. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Pylyp Budkivskyi
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Andriy Sobol after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zorya lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Dmytro Bogdanov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zorya have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Zorya
Jakov Bašić 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Zorya
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jordan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match14 Nov 2026
A point taken on 91 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The dugout16 Nov 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.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Victoriia Sumy to sit and watch. I want to come back to Zorya and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
The goals keep arriving from Ihor Horbach’s exile
10 goals in 13 games at Nyva — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Zorya updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vladlen Yurchenko
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zorya lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market7 Sep 2026
Zorya say no — this time
The offer from Dynamo Kyiv for Vladlen Yurchenko 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: FCSB keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Zorya
Jordan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Vasyl Kravets 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Vasyl Burtnyk
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Nemanja Anđušić has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
In brief
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Beckham Castro is in the works
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Silas Huber is in the works
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Nyva
Artem Habelok and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market24 Aug 2026
Denys Rezepov has left for Oleksandriya in a $470.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market24 Aug 2026
Business is business: Vasyl Burtnyk goes
Zorya paid $470.0K and Nyva took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Ahrobiznes wanted more than $92.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Andrii Boriachuk 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Livyi Bereh, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
Zorya say no — this time
The offer from Shakhtar for Artem Slesar 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Vasyl Burtnyk gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Vasyl Burtnyk has just signed for Zorya, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Zorya asked and Shakhtar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market24 Aug 2026
Oleksandriya did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $900.0K for Artem Shulianskyi, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Market24 Aug 2026
Vasyl Burtnyk arrives at Zorya in a $470.0K statement of intent
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Zorya have paid $470.0K for Vasyl Burtnyk, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Olympiacos is saying, and nobody at Zorya is enjoying the guessing.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Zorya
Jakov Bašić 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Zorya training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordan 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 42. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market17 Aug 2026
Nyva say no — this time
The offer from Epicentr for Serhii Davydov 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$82.0K on the table at Ahrobiznes. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Nyva
Andrii Boriachuk 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Nyva
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vasyl Burtnyk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Vasyl Buialskyi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 Aug 2026
No mercy from Zorya
Obolon will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Zorya were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.53, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Nyva; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$3.6M was the most the club would pay and Dynamo Kyiv were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Oleksandriya, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LNZ have kept their man, and Zorya go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Jordan 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 Zorya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.