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Relieved Furstinger, two other ex-Lobos exit Ukraine, are safe

As the world’s attention was focused squarely Thursday on war breaking out in Ukraine, one former Lobo basketball player spent what he called “the craziest day of my life” just trying to get out of a nation under siege.

Two other former Lobos also playing basketball in Ukraine’s top professional league got out of the country last week – both of whom played for teams in two of the cities hit with pre-dawn strikes as the Russian invasion began Thursday morning.

Joe Furstinger, who graduated from UNM in 2018, and three teammates on Ternopil-Tneu of the Ukraine Superleague, left their apartment in Ternopil, Ukraine, at 7 a.