| Competition: | VBet Liha |
| Pixels: | 280px |
| Season: | 2021–22 |
| Number Of Teams: | 16 |
| Defending Champion: | Dynamo Kyiv |
| Winners: | Title not awarded |
| Relegated: | Desna Chernihiv Mariupol |
| Continentalcup1: | Champions League |
| Continentalcup1 Qualifiers: | Shakhtar Donetsk Dynamo Kyiv |
| Continentalcup2: | Europa League |
| Continentalcup2 Qualifiers: | Dnipro–1 |
| Continentalcup3: | Europa Conference League |
| Continentalcup3 Qualifiers: | Zorya Luhansk Vorskla Poltava |
| League Topscorer: | Artem Dovbyk (14 goals) |
| Longest Wins: | 8 matches Shakhtar Donetsk |
| Longest Unbeaten: | 15 matches Shakhtar Donetsk |
| Longest Winless: | 17 matches Mynai |
| Longest Losses: | 6 matches Mariupol Metalist 1925 |
| Biggest Home Win: | 7 goals Dynamo 7–0 Kolos |
| Biggest Away Win: | 5 goals Mariupol 0–5 Shakhtar Metalist 1925 1–6 Zorya Chornomorets 1–6 Dynamo |
| Highest Scoring: | 7 goals 7 games |
| Highest Attendance: | 28,073 Dynamo v Shakhtar |
| Lowest Attendance: | 230 Inhulets v Kolos |
| Attendance: | [1] |
| Prevseason: | 2020–21 |
| Nextseason: | 2022–23 |
| Updated: | 12 December 2021 |
The 2021–22 Ukrainian Premier League season, referred to as the VBet Liha for sponsorship reasons, was the 31st top-level football club competition since the fall of the Soviet Union and the 14th since the establishment of the Ukrainian Premier League. On 1 July 2021, UPL announced that the new title sponsor for the next three years will be another bookmaking company, VBet.[2]
The defending champions were the 16-time winners Dynamo Kyiv.
The competition was terminated at the UPL extraordinary general meeting on 26 April 2022 due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[3] The league decided that it will not award a champion's title since the season was terminated early, yet the club's league standing would be used to determine qualification to clubs' continental competitions. The meeting was also attended by a number of the Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) officials, among which was the first vice-president Oleh Protasov. The UPL general meeting decision was submitted to UAF Executive Committee for approval. On 2 May 2022, the UAF Executive Committee confirmed early termination of season in the league. A further EGM was held on May 27 to decide promotion and relegation. This confirmed that Desna Chernihiv and Mariupol had both withdrawn from the league for the following campaign due to damage and destruction in their respective cities and facilities because of the war. Metalist Kharkiv and Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih, who were the top two teams in the First League at the time of abandonment, were selected to be promoted by UAF.
The 2021–22 season expanded again to 16 teams as part of the league's expansion plan.
Due to the low-intensity war with Russia that had been ongoing since 2014, teams from the Donbas area were forced to play elsewhere.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, attendance of football matches is limited and regulated by local health departments in each region.[4]
Because of a conflict between the president of Olimpik Donetsk Vladyslav Helzin and the Ukrainian Association of Football officials over a post-match incident that culminated in sanctions against the Olimpik's president, Helzin decided to voluntarily withdraw his football club from the Ukrainian Premier League and transfer away ownership of the club. The decision took place just a couple of weeks before the start of the new season, with the calendar already set. Both PFL and UPL called on emergency clubs' meetings to confirm changes and reinstate membership of the already relegated Mynai in the UPL and relegate Olimpik Donetsk to the second tier (First League) instead. Due to this, the Round 1 match between Dynamo and its visiting opponent was suspended until a later date.
The second half of the season was expected to start on February 25 with the Round 19 game Mynai – Zorya but was suspended due to a full-scale Russian invasion earlier on February 24. Later the President of Ukraine announced a martial law until April 25 and all sports events were forced to be suspended. With the open hostilities continued, it was decided to cancel the season earlier than May 21.
This season, as it was announced earlier, the Ukrainian Premier League has been expanded to 16 teams, which includes 13 teams from the previous season and the top three teams from the 2020–21 Ukrainian First League.
Three of the qualified to the date teams play their matches outside of home towns. The minimum threshold for the stadium's capacity in the UPL is 5,000 (Article 10, paragraph 7.2).[5]
The following stadiums are regarded as home grounds:
| width=18 | Rank | width=150 | Stadium | width=100 | Place | width=130 | Club | width=70 | Capacity | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=center rowspan=2 | 1 | NSC Olimpiyskiy | Kyiv | Dynamo Kyiv | align=center rowspan=2 | 70,050 | ||||
| Shakhtar Donetsk | used as home ground during the season | |||||||||
| align=center rowspan=1 | 2 | Metalist OSC | Kharkiv | Metalist 1925 Kharkiv | align=center rowspan=1 | 41,307 | ||||
| align=center rowspan=2 | 3 | Arena Lviv | Lviv | Lviv | align=center rowspan=2 | 34,915 | ||||
| Rukh Lviv | ||||||||||
| align=center rowspan=1 | 4 | Chornomorets Stadium | Odesa | Chornomorets Odesa | align=center rowspan=1 | 34,164 | ||||
| align=center rowspan=1 | 5 | Dnipro-Arena | Dnipro | Dnipro-1 | align=center rowspan=1 | 31,003 | ||||
| align=center rowspan=1 | 6 | Butovsky Vorskla Stadium | Poltava | Vorskla Poltava | align=center rowspan=1 | 24,795 | ||||
| align=center rowspan=1 | 7 | Shukhevych Ternopil City Stadium | Ternopil | Lviv | align=center rowspan=1 | 15,150 | used as home ground in Round 10 | |||
| align=center rowspan=1 | 8 | Zirka Stadium | Kropyvnytskyi | Inhulets Petrove | align=center rowspan=1 | 14,628 | used as home ground during the season | |||
| align=center rowspan=1 | 9 | Volodymyr Boiko Stadium | Mariupol | Mariupol | align=center rowspan=1 | 12,680 | ||||
| align=center rowspan=1 | 10 | Avanhard Stadium | Lutsk | Veres Rivne | align=center rowspan=1 | 12,080 | used as home ground during the season | |||
| 11 | Avanhard Stadium | Uzhhorod | Mynai | 12,000 | ||||||
| align=center rowspan=1 | 12 | Slavutych-Arena | Zaporizhzhia | Zorya Luhansk | align=center rowspan=1 | 12,000 | used as home ground during the season | |||
| 13 | CSC Nika Stadium | Oleksandriya | Oleksandriya | 7,000 | ||||||
| align=center rowspan=1 | 14 | Chernihiv Stadium | Chernihiv | Desna Chernihiv | align=center rowspan=1 | 5,500 | ||||
| 15 | Kolos Stadium | Kovalivka | Kolos Kovalivka | 5,000 | ||||||
Notes
| Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Table | Incoming manager | Date of appointment | Table |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shakhtar Donetsk | Luís Castro | Mutual agreement | 12 May 2021[6] | Pre-season | Roberto De Zerbi | 25 May 2021[7] | Pre-season |
| Oleksandriya | Volodymyr Sharan | 13 May 2021[8] | Yuriy Hura | 18 May 2021[9] | |||
| Mynai | Mykola Tsymbal | Changed position | 15 June 2021[10] [11] | Vasyl Kobin | 15 June 2021 | ||
| Chornomorets Odesa | Oleksiy Antonov | 23 June 2021[12] | Yuriy Moroz | 23 June 2021 | |||
| Rukh Lviv | Ivan Fedyk | Mutual agreement | 4 August 2021[13] | 14th | Leonid Kuchuk | 4 August 2021[14] | 14th |
| Lviv | Anatoliy Bezsmertnyi | Resigned | 25 August 2021[15] | 15th |  Taras Chopyk (interim) | 25 August 2021[16] [17] | 15th |
| Kolos Kovalivka | Ruslan Kostyshyn | Resigned | 29 August 2021[18] | 11th | Syarhey Kuznyatsow (interim) | 29 August 2021 | 11th |
| Lviv | Taras Chopyk (interim) | End of interim | 6 September 2021 | 15th |  Oleg Dulub | 6 September 2021[19] | 15th |
| Mynai | Fired | 29 September 2021[20] | 15th | Ihor Leonov | 9 October 2021[21] | 15th | |
| Kolos Kovalivka | Syarhey Kuznyatsow (interim) | Undisclosed | November 2021 | 11th | Yaroslav Vyshnyak (interim) | November 2021[22] | 11th |
| Yaroslav Vyshnyak (interim) | Made permanent | 28 November 2021 | 10th | Yaroslav Vyshnyak | 28 November 2021[23] | 10th | |
| Mynai | Mutual agreement | 16 December 2021[24] | 15th | Volodymyr Sharan | 14 January 2022[25] | 15th | |
| Chornomorets Odesa | Undisclosed | 30 December 2021[26] | 13th | 30 December 2021[27] | 13th | ||
Notes:
Teams play each other twice on a home and away basis.
| Rank | Scorer | Team | Goals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=center rowspan=1 | 1 | Artem Dovbyk | Dnipro-1 | 14 (3) |
| align=center rowspan=1 | 2 | Viktor Tsyhankov | Dynamo Kyiv | 11 (5) |
| align=center rowspan=2 | 3 | Vitaliy Buyalskyi | Dynamo Kyiv | 9 (1) |
 Tetê | Shakhtar Donetsk | 9 (1) | ||
| align=center rowspan=1 | 5 |  Olivier Thill | Vorskla Poltava | 8 (2) |
| align=center rowspan=2 | 6 | Denys Bezborodko | Desna Chernihiv | 7 |
| Denys Harmash | Dynamo Kyiv | 7 | ||
| align=center rowspan=5 | 8 | Andriy Kulakov | Mariupol | 6 |
 Allahyar Sayyadmanesh | Zorya Luhansk | 6 | ||
| Shahab Zahedi | Zorya Luhansk | 6 | ||
| Ruslan Stepanyuk | Vorskla Poltava | 6 | ||
 Lassina Traoré | Shakhtar Donetsk | 6 (1) |
| Rank | Scorer | Team | Assists | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=center rowspan=1 | 1 | Vladyslav Kalitvintsev | Desna Chernihiv | 5 | |
| align=center rowspan=3 | 2 | Olivier Thill | Vorskla Poltava | 4 | |
| Yukhym Konoplya | Shakhtar Donetsk | 4 | |||
| Oleksandr Sklyar | Vorskla Poltava | 4 | |||
| align=center rowspan=1 | 5 | align=center colspan=2 | 2 players | align=center rowspan=1 | 3 |
| Player | For | Against | Result | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vladyslav Kocherhin | Zorya Luhansk | Inhulets Petrove | 2 August 2021[32] | |
| Shahab Zahedi | Zorya Luhansk | Veres Rivne | 7 November 2021[33] | |
| Month | Player of the Month | Coach of the Month | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Club | Coach | Club | |||
| August 2021 | Artem Dovbyk | Dnipro-1 | Yuriy Virt | Veres Rivne | [34] | |
| September 2021 | Denys Harmash | Dynamo Kyiv | Viktor Skrypnyk | Zorya Luhansk | [35] | |
| October 2021 | Denys Harmash | Dynamo Kyiv | Yuriy Maksymov | Vorskla Poltava | [36] | |
| November 2021 | Artem Dovbyk | Dnipro-1 | Viktor Skrypnyk | Zorya Luhansk | [37] | |
