Ukrainian Player Confirms She Quit LSU Because Kim Mulkey Signed Russian

Former LSU women’s basketball player Kate Koval, who is Ukrainian, said Wednesday she quit Kim Mulkey’s team last week because the program signed a Russian player.

Koval said in an Instagram post she learned Mulkey planned to sign 17-year-old Russian pro Anna Minaeva in April, “several days after the transfer portal had closed,” a situation that made her “question whether LSU remained the right place for me.” Koval said she is withdrawing from LSU, which Front Office Sports reported last week.

Koval said she hopes the NCAA “recognizes” and “understands” her situation, and that she will be allowed to play basketball somewhere else during the upcoming 2026–27 season. The NCAA forbids midyear basketball transfers from playing if they were enrolled at another school during the first semester; Koval quit the team the day before classes started.

The NCAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. LSU declined to comment beyond Mulkey’s statement last week, which said, “Kate is a great person. She has to do what she feels is right for her, and we fully support her in that.”

Mulkey announced last week that Koval, a junior from Kyiv, came to her on Aug. 23 to quit the team for “personal reasons,” nine days after the school announced Minaeva’s signing.

Koval was set to be the starting center for the Tigers this year after playing in all 35 games for LSU last season and starting 17. She spent her first season at Notre Dame before transferring to Baton Rouge.

Ukraine and Russia have been at war since February 2022. Koval’s father, Oleksandr, is a drone operator in the conflict.

“For me, this war is not distant or abstract,” Koval said in her social media post on Wednesday. “People close to me have been killed and wounded in Russian attacks, and places where I grew up and first began playing basketball have been destroyed by missile strikes.”

Mulkey told The Advocate that she had a conversation with Koval about Minaeva during the recruiting process.

“Know that what I have to do in this business, I cannot make a decision to not recruit somebody that can help our program because of a conflict between two countries,” Mulkey told The Advocate she recalled telling Koval. Mulkey also said she suggested the two players could maybe even help end the war, to which Koval replied: “I doubt that.”