The Ruh football club and its founder, Hryhoriy Kozlovskyy, together with Oleksandr Shovkovsky and the Ukrainian Sports Clinic, are actively developing an initiative called “Above All,” which is designed to help wounded and injured Ukrainian citizens.

The “Above All” project is being rolled out at the FC Ruh Academy and the Emily Sports Complex in Vynnyky. The main goal of this project is to provide medical care and rehabilitation to wounded military and civilians. Under the leadership of Ruh, this initiative is also being developed together with the Ukrainian Sports Clinic and well-known athletes, including Ukrainian football legend Oleksandr Shovkovsky.

“FC Ruh was very enthusiastic about joining our initiative. Thanks to the resources of the club and its founder, Hryhoriy Kozlovskyy, we are able to provide a high level of service and provide our defenders with the necessary support. We currently cooperate with numerous foundations, including the Movement to the Future Foundation. This cooperation concerns financing, material support and other issues. The Emily complex and the Ruh Academy are equipped with everything necessary for the rehabilitation and treatment of the injured. Famous Ukrainian athletes such as Yaroslava Maguchikh, Andriy Pyatov, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Serhiy Stakhovsky, Stanislav Goruna and many others have also joined our charity initiatives. The presence of such prominent athletes, including Oleksandr Shovkovsky, inspires the soldiers undergoing rehabilitation. Their attention is a great moral support for our defenders,” – said Oleh Kasatka, founder and head of the Ukrainian Sports Clinic project.

The “Above All” initiative was established in late March 2022 and began providing care to its first patients in April of the same year.

“Ruh always supports initiatives aimed at supporting the military. We also joined the Above All project together with the Ukrainian Sports Clinic and Oleksandr Shovkovsky. Our goal is to provide accommodation and rehabilitation for more than a hundred wounded soldiers throughout the year. It is important for us to provide these soldiers with all the support they need as they are defending our country, and we must help them in this,” – said Oleh Shpur, Executive Director of the Foundation for Assistance to Ukraine “Movement into the Future”.

To date, 54 Ukrainians have received professional help from specialists, including 37 people who have undergone treatment and rehabilitation at the Movement Academy.

“I have already had four knee surgeries. At first, my condition was severe, and muscle atrophy was noticeable. However, the Ukrainian Sports Clinic project has been of great help, as they offer an individualized approach to each patient. Working with specialists and in the excellent conditions of the Emily complex and the Ruh Academy, I recovered quickly and the results are noticeable. Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done, as I need to strengthen my muscles and improve the functioning of the joint. The doctors always explain why it is necessary to perform a particular procedure in order to achieve better results and recover as soon as possible,” – shared his story soldier Artem Shkreba, a member of the 101st Brigade’s mortar team.

The process of rehabilitation of military personnel includes several stages, starting with an initial consultation, during which a doctor determines the diagnosis. After that, the rehabilitation process begins, which includes physiotherapy and training.

“We use modern technology to conduct tests and create an individual rehabilitation plan for each soldier. After that, treatment begins, including physiotherapy and training. This is done to restore the functionality of injured limbs and other affected parts of the body. Working with the military is quite comfortable, as they are very motivated and disciplined, easy to communicate with and perform all the tasks and procedures recommended by the doctor,” – explained sports doctor Yana Totska.

The Above All project has also received support from Ukrainian football legend Oleksandr Shovkovsky, who partially finances the treatment of wounded soldiers and civilians and is an ambassador for the initiative.

“During my 24-year professional career, I spent almost four years recovering from various injuries. Any surgery performed by surgeons accounts for only 30-35% of the entire recovery process. The rest is proper rehabilitation under the supervision of specialists. Hryhoriy Kozlovskyy and Oleh Kasatka accepted our offer, and we started working together. Now we are working on helping those affected by the war to recover. Soldiers on the front line often suffer from various sports injuries because not all of them have been properly trained for such stress. They do many things on instinct and adrenaline, but then feel the consequences of their activities. I’m talking about sports injuries, such as meniscus, ligaments, joints, bruises, and so on. And this is not to mention various wounds,” – noted Oleksandr Shovkovsky.

The soldiers say that the Above All initiative helped them undergo rehabilitation and successfully recover from their injuries and wounds, in part thanks to the professionals and equipment provided by the project.

“Very professional doctors work here, who are good at their job and can choose an individual set of exercises for each patient. I would like to thank Hryhoriy Kozlovskyy, the staff of the Ukrainian Sports Clinic and everyone who supported me. I had the opportunity to go abroad, but I decided to stay in Ukraine because the conditions here are no worse, and maybe even better. There are all the necessary devices and simulators for rehabilitation that I needed,” – said Krzysztof Mushak, a fighter with the Azov regiment.