Head coach of the Ukrainian amputee football team Nazariy Rusetsky announced the squad for the WAFF World Championship 2026. The tournament will take place from November 13 to 22 in San Juan de los Lagos (Mexico). The main roster includes 15 players: three goalkeepers and twelve field players. Four additional footballers are listed on the reserve list.

Twelve players in the squad are veterans of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Nine of them are part of the main roster.

Players from six amputee football clubs are included in the squad. Most of these players won Division C of the EAFF Nations League in Baku in October 2025.

Squad of the Ukrainian team for the WAFF World Championship 2026:

Goalkeepers: Mykhailo Bilorosyuk («Pokrova AMP»), Yurii Dyachuk («Pokrova AMP»), Stanislav Kaplya («MSK Dnipro»).

Field players: Denis Volynets («Shakhtar Stalevi»), Mykola Gatyla («Pokrova AMP»), Oleksii Inshakov («Kharkiv Nezlamni»), Yaroslav Kachmar («Pokrova AMP»), Vadym Korolyi («Krestonoscy»), Mykola Olexiyenko («Pokrova AMP»), Valentyn Osowskiy («Pokrova AMP»), Mykhailo Sokolyan («Krestonoscy»), Yurii Such («Pokrova AMP»), Oleksandr Chinchley («Pokrova AMP»), Serhiy Shvydkiy («MSK Dnipro»), Dmitro Shegel’skyi («Pokrova AMP»).

Reserve: Yurii Haponchuk («Bartka»), Mykola Ivashchenko («Bartka»), Dmitro Kuts’ («Pokrova AMP»), Volodymyr Romanychyn («Bartka»).

Preparation camp

Before the World Championship, the team will hold a training camp in Lviv and then travel to Mexico.

In the group stage, Ukraine will play in Group C against Brazil, Japan, and Germany. Brazil is a three-time world champion (2000, 2001, 2005) and won bronze at the 2018 World Championship. Japan placed tenth and eleventh at the 2018 and 2022 World Championships respectively. In total, 24 national teams will compete for the title of world champion.

On September 18, the World Amputee Football Federation (WAFF) officially confirmed Ukraine's participation in the tournament. The Ukrainian team replaced Ireland’s squad, which could not form a full roster due to player injuries. Ukraine was selected from a list of European reserve teams.

Exclusive partners of the Ukrainian amputee football team are Mastercard and Oschadbank.

*Amputee football is an adapted version of football for people with limb amputation or functional impairment. On the field, there are seven players — six field players and one goalkeeper. Field players must have an amputation or a functional impairment in their lower limbs, while goalkeepers must have an upper limb amputation. Field players move on monowheels without prosthetics, while goalkeepers play without them. A match consists of two halves of 20 minutes each with a ten-minute break and is played on a pitch measuring 60x40 meters according to adapted rules designed for player safety. Over 100,000 people in Ukraine live with limb amputations. Amputee football helps them return to an active life, engage in sports, and become part of the community.

*«League of the Strong» — a social project by the Ukrainian Football Association aimed at developing amputee football in Ukraine and helping people with limb amputation or functional impairment return to an active life through sports.

In two years, the project has established amputee football centers in 18 cities across Ukraine and united over 500 players into 21 teams. In 2025, the UAF organized the first national championship of amputee football in Ukraine's history.

In 2025, the «League of the Strong» was awarded the UEFA FootbALL Award in the category "National Association," and in 2026 it won the UEFA Grassroots Awards 2025/26 in the Best Disability Initiative category.