Ukraine national team newcomer Vladyslav Velyten spoke about his first call-up to the national team, emotions, and goals with the blue-and-yellow team ahead of the match against Iceland for the 2026 World Cup qualifier.

The interview was given by the press service of Ukraine's national team after another training session in Polish Opole.

"To describe my current state, one word is enough — happy. I will be even happier if we win these two matches. It’s nice to train with the best players in Ukraine. Today's practice was light, but I think tomorrow's will be more challenging and interesting."

I found out about my call-up from Polissya representatives when they substituted me during a match around the 70th minute. It was quite cold, so I went to the under-the-stands area where I got the news. Probably an unusual case. Of course, I reacted positively. The first person I told was my girlfriend, but by the time I got home from Zhytomyr to Kyiv, people were already calling and messaging me. My phone was red. I was happy but not nervous because I understood that I needed to keep working hard and playing football.

Regarding my personal goal at this camp — if I get on the field, I want to contribute something positive to the team. Among the national team players, I previously knew guys from youth teams like Vana, Voloshin, Brachyk, Zabarko. And of course, teammates from Polissya — Hutsulaka, Nazarenko, Mykhaylichenko. There was no special adaptation in the camp for me as I know half of the team since we played together before.

Today we watched Iceland — a strong team that knows how to play football. They have good attackers. We will see an interesting game. We also talked about Azerbaijan. With them, we need to push harder and attack more, shoot at the goal. In the previous match, there was a lot of control but little action," — said Vladyslav Velyten.

Recall that the third round group stage qualifier match between Iceland and Ukraine for the 2026 World Cup in Group D will take place on October 10th in Reykjavik at the Laugardalsvöllur stadium (kick-off — 8:45 PM Kyiv time).