Ukraine

Between those two wins came two runner-up finishes, in 2021 and 2023, both times losing the final to Turkey.

The Ukrainian Volleyball Federation, based on Trekhsvyatytelska Street in Kyiv, has run the national side since November 1991, when it formally registered after a founding conference held that June. Mykhailo Melnyk has led the federation since 2016 and has been re-elected twice since, most recently in 2025.

Home matches have shifted east in recent years: with the Palace of Sports in Kyiv less reliably available since the 2022 invasion, Zaporizhzhia's Palace of Sports Yunost has taken on many of the team's CEV fixtures instead. Neither venue is treated as a fixed base — the side, nicknamed the Blue and Yellow after the flag, moves between them as circumstances allow.

On the floor, the closest thing to a signature result at the top level remains 7th place at the 2022 World Championship and 6th at the 1993 European Championship, results that sit well below what the Golden League form suggests. Bronze at the 2023 FIVB Men's Volleyball Challenger Cup, sealed with a 3–0 win over Chile, added to that secondary-competition record. Captain Oleh Plotnytskyi, an outside hitter with Sir Safety Perugia, has anchored the side through both Golden League titles, while opposite spiker Maksym Tonkonoh, now at Lube Volley, has become one of the more recognisable names in the current squad.

Two Golden League trophies, seven years apart, are what the shelf holds.