Three footballers have joined Bucha Fortuna: striker Mykyta Dzen, defender-midfielder Dmytro Melnychuk and eighteen-year-old Vadym Strupinskyi. Each came from a different tier of Ukrainian football — the First League, regional championships and the academy of a Premier League club.

FC Bucha Fortuna announced this on the evening of 22 September.

Why now

The transfer window in regional competitions closes in a matter of days. Under the regulations of the Kyiv region open championship for 2026/2027 (article 35), a player may change clubs only in two registration periods: from 3 August to 25 September 2026 and from 15 March to 30 April 2027. Outside those dates transfers and additional registrations are not allowed — the only exception the regulations make is for a goalkeeper in a force majeure situation, and even then medical documents are required.

So Bucha registered all three with days to spare and are able to field them this autumn — in a championship where Fortuna sit fifth, and in the Kyiv Region Cup, where they lead 9-0 after the first leg of the last 16.

Mykyta Dzen: 192 centimetres, the Dynamo school and a goal at 90+3

The biggest name of the three. Mykyta Viacheslavovych Dzen was born on 9 March 2005 in Kyiv, plays as a striker and stands 192 centimetres tall at 84 kilograms, according to the Ukrainian Premier League. For a side that scores a lot from set pieces this season, that kind of target in the box is an option in itself.

He was schooled at Dynamo Kyiv’s academy, where he spent five seasons from U-14 to U-17 and then the club’s youth team. In the U-19 championship he also played for Polissia Zhytomyr, Veres Rivne and Chornomorets Odesa. In total, according to the UAF registry, Dzen has 62 matches and 40 goals in the National Future League — a record that explains why top-division clubs kept signing him.

At the end of March 2025 he moved to Inhulets Petrove. He made his senior debut on 2 August 2025 in the opening round of the First League against Bukovyna Chernivtsi, coming on in the 59th minute. His first professional goal came a month later — on 31 August 2025, in the 90+3rd minute of an away game at Podillia Khmelnytskyi that Inhulets won 5-1. In all he made 13 First League appearances for the club and scored once (as of February 2026), and played 59 minutes against Viktoriia in the Ukrainian Cup in October 2025.

There are national teams in his CV too: 10 matches and 2 goals for Ukraine U-17 in 2021–2022 and one appearance for the U-19s. His first U-17 goal came against Portugal in European Championship qualifying.

This year his path took an unexpected turn: Inhulets de-registered him in April, and on 2 September he appeared on the books of To4ka Odesa — the very club, on the very day, that hosted Bucha Fortuna in the return leg of the Ukrainian Amateur Cup. Bucha won that game 5-0 and went through 7-1 on aggregate.

Dmytro Melnychuk: seven Kyiv-region clubs and a face of regional football

Dmytro Melnychuk (listed in the UAF registry as Dmytrii Yuriiovych) was born on 18 November 2002. Lyubomyr’s club profile lists him as a defender, the UAF database as a midfielder; in practice he is a utility player for both the back line and the area in front of it.

His football geography covers almost the whole south of Kyiv region. He started at the Tetiiv youth school, moved to Lyubomyr Stavyshche in 2016 and went through every age group there — U-15, U-17, U-19 and then the first team. The 2021/2022 season was his professional one: Lyubomyr played in the Second League and Melnychuk featured in part of those games. In all, according to the UAF registry, he has 20 matches and 1,648 minutes in professional competitions and 71 matches with 7 goals in the National Future League.

Then came an amateur route around the region: Sokil from Mykhailivka-Rubezhivka, Denhoff of Denykhivka — the current Kyiv Region Cup finalists — Polissia of Stavky, and in the spring of 2026 SC Zhashkivska Hromada, already in Cherkasy region. In Amateur Football Association competitions he has 55 matches and 12 goals, plus 29 matches and 3 goals in regional tournaments run by KOAF. Alongside that Melnychuk played for NUBiP in student competitions and had a spell in futsal.

For Fortuna that means one simple thing: the newcomer knows this league from the inside — and from the other side of the pitch. Last season Bucha edged Polissia Stavky in the Kyiv Region Cup quarter-final only on penalties, and Denhoff are a regular rival at the top of the table.

Vadym Strupinskyi: eighteen years old and a regional gold medal

The youngest of the three. Vadym Volodymyrovych Strupinskyi was born on 11 February 2008, and his registry history begins in Obukhiv: the youth school, then Vertykal-Obukhiv. In 2021 he ended up in Dnipro — first at AFC Dnipro, then at the Dnipro Football Academy, where he played in the National Future League for the U-14 and U-16 sides. He has 9 matches there, seven of them starts, 435 minutes and 2 goals.

In the spring of 2025 Strupinskyi returned to Kyiv region — to Kolos Kovalivka, where he was registered both with the youth school and the U-17 team. The season turned out to be a title-winning one: on 27 June 2025 KOAF named Kolos-1 the strongest team in Kyiv region in the U-17 age group, and Strupinskyi’s name is on the list of champions along with twenty team-mates. That side was coached by Andrii Oliinyk.

Since then, according to the UAF registry, he has had no new registrations — he joins Bucha without a current registration at another club. For a side that fielded its own young players last Saturday, it is a logical continuation.

What it gives Fortuna

Bucha’s calendar is packed and their injury problems are fresh. In the match against Rokyta on 16 September the team lost Vladyslav Horbachenko to injury, and three days later, in the cup game against the Trubin Academy, Ihor Soldat left the pitch early — apparently with a calf problem. Meanwhile on Wednesday, 23 September, Fortuna host Rokyta in the return leg of the Ukrainian Amateur Cup with a one-goal deficit to overturn, on Saturday, 26 September, they travel to Tytan Kyiv, and on 3–4 October they play the return leg against the Trubin Academy.

The three newcomers cover three different needs. Dzen is a classic centre-forward with First League experience and the physique for aerial play — exactly what Bucha lacked in games like the one in Poltava region, where they had plenty of the ball but nobody to aim for in the box. Melnychuk is a ready-made player at regional level who can fill in at full-back or in the holding role without needing time to adapt. Strupinskyi is an investment in the seasons to come: an eighteen-year-old from two academies who has already won the region.

There is also a formality that has already been cleared here: under article 36 of the regulations, a professional footballer can be reclassified as an amateur only thirty days after his last match in professional status. For Dzen that period passed long ago — Inhulets de-registered him back in April.

What comes next

The first chance to see the new squad is the return leg against Rokyta at the Yuvileinyi stadium on 23 September.

As a reminder, on Saturday Bucha thrashed the Anatolii Trubin Academy 9-0 in the first leg of the Kyiv Region Cup last 16 — with a hat-trick from captain Vasyl Koropetskyi.