The basketball club Kharkiv Falcons has begun preparing for the new season of the Ukrainian Super League and announced a fundamental organizational decision: due to the security situation, the team has changed its home arena and relocated from Dnipro to Kyiv. The capital will now become the club's base city, where the Falcons will play their home games. This is reported by Sport RBC.UA, citing Suspilne Sport. According to the club's management, the move is intended to put an end to years of logistical costs and provide the team with a stable platform for development.
The Move to Kyiv: Reasons and Logistics
Last season, the Falcons posted one of the best results in their history: second place in the regular season and a fourth-place finish after the playoffs. However, as the club emphasizes, the constant relocations between Kharkiv and Dnipro noticeably drained the team — both physically and organizationally. Basing in Kyiv is supposed to ensure a permanent home arena, reduced travel expenses, and, just as importantly, stable fan support, which had previously remained fragmented due to frequent venue changes.
New Coaching Staff and Roster Reinforcement
In the summer, the head coach position was taken by Dmytro Zabyrenko, who won the "silver" with Kyiv-Basket in the 2025/26 season. Along with the coach, four players from the capital's team joined the Slobozhanskyi club — Denys Klevzunik, Maksym Sandul, Artem Romantsia, and Yehor Sushkin. This roster reinforcement effectively transfers a significant share of the playing experience and tactical school of the recent finalist to the Falcons.
The Team's Goals and Ambitions
"The management told me right away that the team would be based in Kyiv. This is an ambitious project with the highest goals. Our main task is to show substantive basketball. If there is quality in the play, the results will follow too," Zabyrenko stated. Meanwhile, the players do not hide more concrete aspirations: Andriy Khokhonyk and Vadym Zaplotskyi note that the roster has strengthened the weak positions under the baskets and become tougher, and they name the fight for gold medals and all available trophies as the main goal of the championship.
The Club's History and Path to the Elite
The club was founded in 2017 on the base of Ivan Kozhedub Kharkiv National Air Force University. The Falcons debuted in the Super League in the 2019/20 season and have played a total of four seasons in the Ukrainian elite. The team's greatest achievement was fourth place in last year's Super League tournament, which became the starting point for the current ambitious plans. Against this backdrop, it is worth noting the overall rise of Ukrainian basketball: the national team recently made a leap in the FIBA ranking after loud victories in the 2027 World Cup qualifiers.
Contradictory Data
The original source text contains an inconsistency in the chronology of the club's appearances in the elite. On the one hand, it is stated that the Falcons first played in the Super League in the 2019/20 season; on the other — that the club spent a total of four seasons in the Ukrainian elite, and its main achievement is named as fourth place in the "last year's" (i.e., 2025/26 season) tournament. If four consecutive seasons are counted from the debut 2019/20, they end in 2022/23, which does not match the mention of 2025/26 as the most recent. An alternative interpretation suggests that the club did not compete in the elite for one or several seasons and returned in 2025/26, however the source does not directly confirm this. Until clarification from the club is received, both versions are presented as they are.
Either way, the move to Kyiv and the roster reinforcement make the Kharkiv Falcons one of the most intriguing participants of the new Super League season. Now the key factor will be whether the team can convert its ambitions and new roster into a sustained result on a permanent home arena.
