Donny van de Beek is taking action to help Ukrainian refugees, his teammate Vitaliy Mykolenko revealed. The latter asked Everton for help and can therefore count on a warm gesture from Van de Beek, who is willing to rent a house for people who have fled the war zone. “I can’t thank people like Donny enough,” Mykolenko, himself a Ukrainian international, responds to the sports site Tribuna†
Mykolenko has been going through a rough time since the Russian invasion of his homeland. The 22-year-old left-back, who moved from Dinamo Kiev to Everton in January, regularly speaks out publicly about the war and receives a lot of support from his club. “Everyone came to me and asked how my family was doing,” Mykolenko says. “On the second day, the coach (Frank Lampard, ed.) came to me and said: ‘If you need rest and don’t want to come to the club for a while, that’s fine. If you need time, take that time .”
The Ukrainian also gives an example about his Dutch teammate in Liverpool. “Donny van de Beek, a world-class player, came to me and said: ‘My father and I want to rent a house to receive people, in the Netherlands or in Poland. We pick them up at the border, arrange reception and pay for it.’ I was pleasantly surprised.”
Mykolenko also received a nice message from the medical staff. “Yesterday a physiotherapist came by and said: ‘I have a room, a bed for two people. We are ready to provide shelter to people who no longer have that elsewhere.” I was touched by it, really touched,” concludes Mykolenko.