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David Moyes has revealed West Ham forward Andriy Yarmolenko has returned to first-team training, although he is ‘very upset’ over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Yarmolenko captained Ukraine at Euro 2020 and has reached 106 caps for the country. He was recently given compassionate leave by West Ham due to the turmoil inflicted on his nation by neighbours Russia.

That meant the 32-year-old missed the 1-0 victory over Wolves at the weekend.

Yarmolenko is now back in ‘light training’, according to Moyes. But it will ultimately be up to the player, should he want to feature in West Ham’s next match.

The Irons travel to Southampton in the FA Cup fifth round on Wednesday evening.

At the pre-match press conference, Moyes told reporters: “He came back in and did a bit of light training, I had a good chat with him.

“Obviously he’s really upset with the whole situation, which many people are.

Andriy Yarmolenko ‘really upset’ – Moyes

“We won’t rush him. I’ve asked him to come in today and see how he feels. If he feels fine and up to it then he’ll travel with the team. If he doesn’t, then we’ll give him some more days off.

“Things can change very quickly but we’ll give him the chance to go with his own feelings.

“He’s really upset. He’s got lots of family members in Ukraine and friends and he’s worried for everybody and realises the difficulty that’s going on, and he’s a long way away and can’t do an awful lot about it.”

Prior to the victory over Bruno Lage’s side on Sunday, West Ham players showed support for their team-mate by warming up in t-shirts displaying his name. Skipper Declan Rice also held Yarmolenko’s West Ham shirt as the crowd applauded.

“It’s a really difficult situation for us as well, because we’d like to offer him more help and support if we can,” Moyes added. “But we don’t really know what we can do either, and I think it’s the same with the world, I think the world is trying to give Ukraine as much support as they can.

“All we can hope for is the sanctions somewhere along the line start to take its toll on Russia, because none of us want to go to war with any country.

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“Us personally with Yarmolenko, we try to deal with him, we speak to him most days. I have to say the players at the club were great with him (on Monday), they tried to get him back in, integrate him and make sure he felt really welcome and that we were thinking about him and his family.

“But there’s very little we can do – we just have to try to support him as best we can.”

Manager reacts to FIFA, UEFA sanctions

FIFA and UEFA have responded to Russia’s actions by suspending their teams from appearing in competitions such as the Europa League. It means Spartak Moscow will not feature in the UEL round of 16.

When asked about FIFA and UEFA’s measures, Moyes said: “I totally agree. I actually think they could have probably even been done even quicker.

“But I think UEFA have worked really hard. They’ve got rid of games, they’ve moved the Champions League final (from St Petersburg to Paris).

“Football is such a powerful tool all around the world. I think it’s really important we take action and make sure they (Russia) are isolated completely. I’m not a politician, but that’s how I feel about the football side.”

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