On June 8, after a 23-hour journey, the Ukraine national team arrived in Bremen from Kiev to prepare for a friendly match against Germany. New national team coach Serhiy Rebrov, despite the exhausting trip, immediately conducted stretching exercises at the hotel and addressed the players with his first speech.

Defender of Donetsk "Shakhtar," Valeriy Bondar, shared his impressions about Rebrov's words.

"The journey to the camp was tough, but I feel good. We are getting used to such trips since when we played in the UEFA Champions League, many of us had them. We will sleep a bit and recover.

We met with the new coach — he is truly a legend of Ukrainian football and Kyiv "Dynamo." After today's address from Serhiy Rebrov, there was great inspiration, desire, and ambition in the team. Everyone listened to him very attentively and are already thinking about some tactical aspects. We will study his playing style.

The situation in Ukraine right now is very difficult due to recent events. So when you leave the country, you remember that your family, wife, and parents stay behind. And it's dangerous for them, as well as for every Ukrainian. We worry about our country every day. What those bad people are doing now is incredibly painful. The catastrophe they caused a few days ago cannot be described in words. So many lives were lost, even animals... It's hard to talk about this.

But we stick together and believe in our armed forces. We live and play football only thanks to them. They protect us, and we can work on the field. We thank them every day! I want to wish our soldiers strength and success so they can drive these invaders out of our land," — Valeriy Bondar said.

Today, players of the national team are scheduled for their first training session under Serhiy Rebrov's leadership. The Ukraine national team will play against Germany on June 12 in Bremen at "Weserstadion." This will be a charity friendly match that marks the 1000th game in German football history (kickoff — 4:00 PM Kyiv time).