Maxim Makson_AAA Andriasyuk — one of the stars of Ukrainian esports football. In just three years, this 30-year-old player managed not only to join the national team of Ukraine in the PES discipline but also led his team to the quarter-finals of the Euro Championship-2021. This achievement remains the highest in the still short history of international appearances by Ukrainian teams in electronic football.

And Maxim is a Ukrainian who, like millions of his compatriots, was forced to stop pursuing his passion when Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. Andriasyuk met the Russian military aggression in his hometown of Zoria in Donetsk Oblast, located just 30 km from Mariupol. He got stuck in temporarily occupied territory for a whole four months!

"February 24 was a day of shock when everyone was panicking and no one understood what was happening. On the 25th, we lost electricity. The lights went out along with the Internet, which were bad omens,"

Maxim recounts his story, who in the summer of 2021 together with Sergiy Sergobibika Marchenko wrote a new page in the history of Ukrainian esports football by reaching the quarter-finals of UEFA eEuro 2021 and then found himself at the epicenter of Russian military aggression in Donetsk Oblast.

In peacetime, Makson skillfully controlled the joystick and scored goals for Ukraine's national team in the football simulator PES. When war came, residents of the building where Maxim lived divided responsibilities among themselves to survive. He was responsible for finding clean water.

"We had to go to a neighboring village for water. A friend who had already left at that point had a Gazelle with a tank. So I transported water in it. To get to the neighboring village, I had to pass through four checkpoints and almost stand guard explaining my purpose at each one. The Russian soldiers were threatening and intimidating. They immediately occupied our school, local council, and kindergarten. Settled there and set up posts. Began telling people that they would be here forever, that locals would be helped, that they would be saved,"

Andriasyuk explains and adds that those few who tried to explain to Russian soldiers that they were not welcome ended up very badly.

March 2022 became the most tragic month in Mariupol's recent history, where officially lived 450 thousand people. However, the beginning of war in eastern regions in 2014 and the creation of so-called "DNR" and "LNR" effectively turned it into a million-plus city. Most residents evacuated, but many witnessed the most horrific events involving the aggressor's army, including bombing the dramatic theater, which even a huge white lettering saying "Children" did not stop Russian aviation from attacking. Andriasyk lost relatives in Mariupol, but official data on the number of casualties due to war crimes in the Azov city are still unknown. As Maxim himself believes, the toll runs into tens of thousands.

"The Russians simply destroyed everything in their path in Mariupol. Their logic was simple: there could be a sniper or a fire controller hiding in every house,"

Andriasyk explains the total destruction of the city. "But everyone knew that the 'Azov' battalion was based at Azovstal, and practically no military remained in the city."

Have you ever heard about filtration? Perhaps this word came up to you in stories about World War II regarding Nazi atrocities against Jews. Andriasyk had to go through a filtration process firsthand: "All residents of my village, numbering around 2,500 people, had to pass through filtration. This included people from young to elderly age. The interrogation took place in a room where they played good cop and bad cop. They checked for tattoos, fingerprinted everyone. Checked mobile phone data for contacts with those who at the time served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Several people were shot. One day, they showed them off tied up with duct tape, blindfolded, taken away to an unknown destination. Later it became known that they no longer lived."

For three weeks from the start of Russian offensive, Ukrainian esports footballer remained without communication and news about what was happening outside the region. After this, Maxim decided enough is enough — he had to leave. The chance to escape life in occupation lay through a trip to Donetsk, and only on his third attempt did Andriasyk manage to get out of Ukraine and send his family to safety abroad.

Currently, Maxim lives in Kyiv. He was given shelter by the first vice president of the Ukrainian Association of Electronic Football Denis Davidov. Two weeks ago, Andriasyk took part in the first esports tournament during wartime — a selection for eFootball (PES underwent rebranding) to represent Ukraine at the European Esports Championship 2022 in Montenegro. He managed to reach the final, but lost in the decisive series to Vitaliy bydbprosche Litvinov and took second place.

"Very pleasant feelings from the tournament in Lviv. Sad that not all players could come due to events in our country. But I got cool emotions. The tournament allowed me to return for a day to civilized life, as Ukraine lived before the invasion. Thanks to such events, you return to sanity and understand that life goes on. Now electronic football helps people take their minds off war and not fall into depression,"

Maxim shares his impressions from the conducted competitions. And adds that besides esports football, a part of his free time now is spent helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine: "If I have to pick up arms, then I will go to war. But it seems to me that I can be more useful behind the scenes — helping soldiers who need supplies. Winter is approaching, and our defenders need to dress warmly. You cannot sit in a trench for months in football gear and bulletproof vest."

"War came because we live next to an enemy. When you have a drug addict, murderer or drunkard living through the wall from you, sooner or later they will come to you,"

is how Maxim explains Russian military aggression that millions of Ukrainians have suffered for over five months.

The argument of Russians about protecting Russian-speaking population from so-called "Ukrainian Nazis" is not taken seriously by the footballer who uses both Russian and Ukrainian in everyday life: "This is an absolutely fabricated pretext for an attack. I never felt any pressure regarding language. No one ever hassled me over it. Russia just says they are helping Russian-speaking population, but as a result bombed mostly Russian-speaking cities. Mariupol was probably one of the largest Russian-speaking cities in Ukraine. Now it's gone... "