Ukraine has benefited greatly from the Soviet emphasis on physical education. Such policies provided Ukraine with hundreds of stadia, swimming pools, gymnasia and many other athletic facilities.The most popular sport is football. The top professional league is the Vyscha Liha, also known as the Ukrainian Premier League. The most prominent teams-competitors are Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk.

 A large number of Ukrainians also played for the Soviet national football team, the most notable are Ihor Belanov and Oleh Blokhin, winners of the Golden Ball Award as the best football players in the world. This award was only presented only to one Ukrainian after the decline of the Soviet Union, Andriy Shevchenko, the leader of the Ukrainian national football team. The national team  participated in the FIFA World Cup in 2016 and reached the quarterfinals before losing to the Italian champions at the end. Ukrainians are also famous in boxing, where the brothers Vitalii and Volodymyr Klitschko have held world heavyweight championships. Like Ukraine, Poland also took part in the European World Cup (Euro 2012)  hosted by Ukraine in June, 2012.