Kudrivka

A village of a few hundred people in the Koryukivka district of Chernihiv Oblast is not where professional football usually starts, and for four decades it did not start there either. The team set up in June 1982 played where village teams play — regional cups, oblast championships, opponents from down the road. It won the Chernihiv Oblast Football Cup four times.

The route upward was bought rather than climbed. In late 2023 the club's president, Roman Solodarenko, purchased Nyva Buzova and merged it into Kudrivka, and with it came a place in the First League for 2024–25. The operation moved west into the Irpin and Bucha area, with home matches at Stadium Yuvileinyi in Bucha; Kudrivka Arena, back in Chernihiv Oblast, holds 500.

Kudrivka topped Group B in that first professional season and went into the promotion play-offs against Vorskla Poltava. They lost 2:1 away, won 1:0 at home and took it 4:3 on penalties. The Premier League season that followed, 2025–26, was played at Obolon Arena in Kyiv and Avanhard Stadium in Rivne — the village ground was never going to host it. Vasyl Baranov, who managed the promotion campaign, was replaced by Oleksandr Protchenko in early 2026.

Andriy Storchous finished that debut top-flight season as the division's leading scorer with 12 goals. Solodarenko, meanwhile, still registers as a player as well as owning the club.