A little over two weeks ago, Vitalii Puchkov’s mother was killed by a rocket that hit her home in Kharkiv. On Tuesday night Puchkov will line up at right-centre against a team of Super League stalwarts in a World Cup qualifier against France. Ukraine will be led by their captain, Oleksandr Skorbach, the Kharkiv Legion XIII five-eighth, who has moved his wife, young child and new baby to Kyiv and could be forgiven if he failed to be fully focused on rugby.

“Kharkiv is under attack every day – it is too dangerous to stay there – so it is very difficult to not pay attention to this,” admitted Skorbach via the team interpreter. “Some of the boys are not able to participate in the competition as they are protecting the Ukraine in our military and we are so thankful to them. We lost one player when his whole family were killed by a rocket. We are playing for them.”

Only the winners of this week’s European qualifying tournament for the 2026 World Cup will proceed to the last qualifying stage, where they will meet the Cook Islands, South Africa and Jamaica. It is presumed by all outsiders that will not be Ukraine. Assuming they lose to France they will face Wales or Serbia on Saturday before returning home to scenes difficult for most to imagine.

“We have to show the best representation of Ukraine,” said the veteran Skorbach, 37, who has been playing rugby since he was 12. “We can’t just hope to play a good game – we want to win. To be honest, the French don’t know who we are or what to expect from us. They will think we’re not strong, but we will show how powerful we are and what spirit we have.”

They have done that just by getting to France. Before it had chance to recover after the pandemic, rugby league in Ukraine ground to a halt when Russia invaded in March 2022. It has since returned in part, with most matches taking place in secret and all teams going to a central location for one day round-robin tournaments. Six of the squad are serving military men who have been given leave to play in the tournament, and all players had to raise funds to pay for the 10-day trip.

“The main issue is players not being able to be released from frontline duty,” explains the Ukraine coach, Dan Beardshaw. “Gone are the days when clubs would train twice a week. There were 10 clubs and 29 teams before the war, now there are only six, but they are still running some junior programmes and Ukrainian Super League games are broadcast on satellite TV.”

Despite the war, Ukraine RL is miraculously close to meeting the criteria to remain full members of International RL, with recognition of tag rugby and talks starting over wheelchair rugby league, something that sadly has a rapidly increasing pool of potential participants. It is an untold story that epitomises league’s survival spirit. Long term the national team may get stronger as around 250,000 refugees are now in the UK, some of whom will play league.

Ukraine’s mix of veteran league players, sevens talent, union code-crossers and five heritage players from Australia’s lower tiers who had never met their teammates until last week, are up against a France XIII of Super League players. Then again Ukraine are used to the odds being stacked against them.

“It’s a win-win,” declares Beardshaw, whose east Hull accent has been supplanted by a New South Wales one 12 years after leaving Humberside. “It’s a beautiful challenge and exciting. Our lads have a high skill-set and are physically ready. We’ve given them a skeleton structure to play to but they will play the Ukrainian way – they’ve got a few tricks up their sleeves!”

Unable to fly to a war zone, police officer Beardshaw has orchestrated Ukraine’s preparations online. “I’ve watched a lot of games – nines, sevens, Ukrainian Super League – but only had four sessions on the field with them. We had a squad of 31 go into two five-day camps with the domestic coaches and I watched those sessions, fed messages back, and had one-to-ones with players. Quite a lot speak English – five of the lads who went on an exchange to Milford Marlins (in Leeds) in 2018 are in the squad still – and we have an amazing translator but Google Translate has been essential. Our hooker Dmytro Semerenko made out he didn’t understand any English then suddenly said a whole sentence perfectly!”

The journey to France would have put off most teams. The main party went by bus from Ukraine to Czechia last week, as the Australian contingent flew to Prague. After dismantling Czechia 84-0 in front of a vociferous crowd in Letohrad on Friday, the majority spent 20 hours on a coach to Carcassonne while others paid to fly from Munich to Toulouse. Talk after training always returns to the war as they watch the news, phone home and hear of bombs falling terrifying close to loved ones. Having travelled at least 3,000km, they will not be exactly fresh in body or mind come Tuesday night.

Ukraine were impressive on Friday and should give Wales or Serbia a tough time on Saturday. A year ago they went to Greece and won both Tests. They have flown so far under the European radar they could pull off a shock win this week.

“Some of the squad have been around a long time and been playing league for years,” explained Beardshaw. “The captain has been playing all his life. Others are new to it. Our full-back Yaroslav Davydov has come from sevens – he’s only played three games of league, but what a talent.”

A former teacher and Scotland Student international, Beardshaw has his own story. Having coached under Anthony Seibold on an exchange at Mackay Cutters in his late 20s Beardshaw’s league-loving father had two heart attacks. Realising that heart issues ran in the family, Dan had an epiphany. He was going to crack on with life. A working holiday at Sydney’s Western Magpies turned into development officer roles with the NRL, Wests Tigers and Canterbury Bulldogs. As Covid hit he joined the NSW Police Academy and about a year ago offered to help Ukraine in any way he could.

Beardshaw has been touched that although his squad all have extraordinarily brave tales of frontline combat and heart-wrenching loss, they value his story, too. “The Ukrainian culture is so respectful. They will sit and listen to you and wait for you to finish. I told them all about how I ended up here – illness and family loss, Covid, marriage, everything – and they said: ‘This is the Ukrainian chapter in the book of your life.’”

Two war-torn nations were supposed to be playing international rugby league in France this month but Lebanon cancelled a two-game series. Conflicting reasons have been aired, but few could point at a nation being bombed on a daily basis and expect their priority be to arrange and fund a rugby league trip.

Lebanon had already lost their IRL full member status despite reaching the last two World Cup quarter-finals, and unless they somehow re-establish their domestic programme the Cedars will disappear from the world stage at a time when they have more NRL and Super League players than ever.

In a dichotomy typical of league’s ‘why always me?’ complex, like Lebanon, Ireland, Scotland and Italy were stripped of full status for allowing their domestic programmes to crumble just as their playing base included sufficient full-time players to suggest they might be capable of becoming the northern hemisphere’s equivalent of Tonga or Samoa.

Instead the World Cup qualifiers feature Wales, with only two Super League regulars, and a Serbia side that have drafted in eight Australian-Serbs, including the former Samoa winger David Nofoaluma and Catalan-bound Nic Cotric. The pair will bolster a domestic Serbia team that have been the most active in Europe but shown little sign of shirking their also-ran status. Ukraine are determined to pull off a surprise or two.

“We feel very responsible, representing Ukraine and our families,” said Skorbach, who goes back to his day job managing a sports complex next week. “We look like strong men from the outside but inside I feel weak emotionally. We can’t do anything. I feel helpless.”

The path is wide open for France to win the Euros and make it to Australia for the 2026 World Cup. But whatever happens the real winners will be Ukraine.