Marked for Orest Kuzyk
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
14 days out for Danylo Knysh after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Victoriia Sumy will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets16 Nov 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Jhonnatan 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Danylo Knysh out for 23 days
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.
Transfer targets9 Nov 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad9 Nov 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 ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 7.78. 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nazariy Harmash on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denys Riabyi, and the manager let it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Danylo Knysh out for 30 days
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.
Match2 Nov 2026
12 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Transfer targets2 Nov 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Dmytro Ulianov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match31 Oct 2026
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and UCSA were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Match31 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over UCSA, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Dmytro Forsiuk
“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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 126% 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 7.70 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Danylo Knysh out for 54 days
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.
Squad12 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Market12 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Denys Dolinskyi signs something — a contract at Victoriia Sumy or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Looking ahead: the trip to Vorskla
Position 8 for the hosts, a long journey for the away end, and a fixture that will look ordinary on paper right up until it is not.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
Danylo Knysh breaks a bone — 61 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match5 Oct 2026
Position 14, 8 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Dmytro Ulianov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 147% 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
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Match3 Oct 2026
Probiy held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Victoriia Sumy answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Oleksandr Lytvynenko and Victoriia Sumy agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market5 Oct 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
97 days out for Danylo Knysh after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Victoriia Sumy will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match26 Aug 2026
Metalist ended it 1‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market31 Aug 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
5 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Dmytro Shynkarenko delivers — 7.11
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dmytro Shynkarenko scored, was marked 7.11, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Karpaty have kept their man, and Victoriia Sumy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
31 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad31 Aug 2026
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Dmytro Ulianov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LNZ have kept their man, and Victoriia Sumy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mykola Sirenko has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vladyslav Nazarenko has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Heorhiy Sirenko is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vasyl Buialskyi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Orest Kuzyk has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Victoriia Sumy know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
7.97, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Victoriia Sumy had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Metalist have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.