How Pétanque Is Helping Heal Ukraine's War Veterans

In 2015, a Ukrainian soldier named Sergueï Khrapko was severely wounded by an anti-personnel mine, losing an arm and a leg. Years later, he picked up a set of boules for the first time. "Pétanque helps me improve my physical condition, to live better with my mutilated body," he told France 3 in July 2025. He now teaches the game to other wounded soldiers and, in 2025, competed at the Mondial La Marseillaise à pétanque in France - the same tournament that draws the sport's biggest stars every summer.

Khrapko's story is not an isolated one. Across Ukraine, pétanque has quietly become part of the country's response to a war that has left tens of thousands of soldiers with life-changing injuries. What started as a pastime borrowed from France has turned into an officially recognized rehabilitation tool, coordinated by federations, funded by international fundraising campaigns, and delivered, hospital by hospital, by volunteers.

A Therapy Recognized by Ukraine's Ministry of Health

In 2023, Ukraine's Ministry of Health formally recognized pétanque's therapeutic value for wounded soldiers. The Ukrainian Pétanque Federation, which initiated and coordinates the program, has since introduced the game into roughly ten military hospitals, according to reporting from the FIPJP and Mindsite News. More than 400 wounded soldiers have taken part in hospital workshops, and the federation set a goal of expanding the program to 50 hospitals by the end of 2025.

Oksana Yudenko, vice-president of the Ukrainian Pétanque Federation, told France 3 that the game was introduced into hospitals as a form of physical and emotional recreation - something soldiers recovering from severe injuries could do together, at their own pace, without the intensity of conventional physiotherapy.

Why a French Backyard Game Works as Rehabilitation

Pétanque's appeal as a rehabilitation tool comes from what it does not demand. Unlike sports that require running, jumping, or heavy exertion, pétanque is a precision game: players stand or sit in a small circle and lob metal boules toward a target, the cochonnet, using controlled arm motion. That makes it playable by soldiers who have lost limbs, use wheelchairs, or are still rebuilding basic mobility.

At the same time, the game still demands genuine motor coordination, concentration, and strategic thinking - qualities that matter for cognitive as well as physical recovery. And because it is played in small, unhurried groups on an open terrain, it gives veterans a natural, low-pressure setting to reconnect socially after trauma, rather than a clinical one.

The FIPJP's Pétanque Santé Ukraine Campaign

The hospital program is backed by an international fundraising effort called Pétanque Santé Ukraine, coordinated by the FIPJP (the Fédération Internationale de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal) under president Gérard Schneider, who succeeded longtime president Claude Azéma at the federation's October 2025 congress in Douai, France, in collaboration with the French pétanque federation and with support from other European federations. The campaign funds equipment - boules, measuring tools, and educational materials - along with specialized training for the hospital staff and volunteers who run the sessions. Philippe Quintais, pétanque's most decorated world champion, serves as the campaign's patron.

Grassroots Clubs Filling the Gap

Institutional support is only part of the story. After Russia's full-scale invasion began in 2022, Dmytro Bugai, a co-founder of the Ukrainian Pétanque Federation, started teaching pétanque in parks near his home simply to give people a reason to gather. That grassroots instinct has been echoed elsewhere in the country.

In Kovel, in Ukraine's Volyn region, the Uptown Pétanque Club runs a project called "Pétanque for Veterans and Defenders" together with the NGO Ukrainian Association for Health Protection "Marlog-Caduceus." Tournaments there have brought together veteran teams from Kovel and Lutsk alongside border guards, and the charity Nova Ukraine helped fund construction of the club's playing area.

Kryvyi Rih: Games That Bring Whole Families Together

Pétanque's role in Ukraine's veteran community extends beyond hospitals and therapy sessions into public celebration. The 2025 Veterans Family Games in Kryvyi Rih - the industrial city in central Ukraine that is also home to President Volodymyr Zelensky - brought together more than 200 veterans and their families for a day of inclusive activities: a pétanque tournament, archery, art exhibitions, and educational workshops. The event was organized jointly by Rotary Club Kyiv International, the municipality of Kryvyi Rih, the Ukrainian Pétanque Federation, and the Kryvyi Rih Youth Center, with support from deputy mayor Serhii Miliutin.

Events like this reflect what organizers describe as the sport's biggest strength for this purpose: regardless of age, gender, or war-related injury, everyone on the terrain can take part on equal footing, and rediscover a sense of connection and belonging.

Lviv, 2026: A National Championship, and a Veterans League of Its Own

On 24-26 July 2026, Lviv's Stryiskyi Park hosted Ukraine's national pétanque championship, organized by the Federation of Pétanque of Ukraine under president Lilia Lytvyn. More than 100 athletes from across the country, travelling from cities including Kharkiv, Kovel, Uzhhorod, Mukachevo, Irpin, and Kyiv, competed on 50 courts. For the first time, war veterans and athletes with hearing impairments took part in the national championship on equal footing with every other competitor, and the men's doublettes event doubled as a qualifying stage for the World Championship.

Among them was Ivan Drozd, a veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war who competed for a team from the Unbroken rehabilitation center, where he took up pétanque after being wounded in 2022. Drozd, who also runs marathons and lost his 20-year-old son in the war, said sport gives him a reason to keep going.

Two months later, on 19-20 September 2026, Lviv hosted a championship built specifically around that community: the Veterans Pétanque League's Champions Cup grand final, again at Stryiskyi Park. Some 165 veterans on 50 teams, travelling from cities including Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Odesa, competed on the first day before 32 teams advanced to the playoff.

A Small Boule, A Big Impact

None of this makes pétanque a cure for the trauma of war. But for soldiers like Sergueï Khrapko, and for the hundreds of others who have picked up boules in hospital courtyards and city parks across Ukraine, a simple French game has become something closer to a lifeline - a way back to movement, to competition, and to community. If you want to understand the sport that is helping make that possible, our beginner's guide to pétanque and guide on how to start a pétanque club are a good place to start, and our Pétanque for Players with Disabilities guide covers the official rule accommodations, like Khrapko's, that make this possible.