summer. For much of the 2021-2022 season, CSKA fought for a spot in the EuroLeague playoffs. In early 2022, upon the outbreak of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Tornike Shengelia from Georgia (saying: "Everyone says it was a difficult or big decision, but it was not. First of all, I felt that my family was threatened, even though the war was not in Moscow. With war you never know what will occur, one second is enough for something to happen. The first thing I wanted to do was to send my family away and then I made the decision to depart too."), Johannes Voigtmann from Germany ("I can't reconcile myself playing for a Russian team.... The Russian president is responsible for a brutal war, because of which innocent people are dying in Ukraine. Millions of people have to flee their homes, and children, in particular, are losing their homes or even their lives. I just couldn't stay in Russia and carry on as if nothing had happened...."), Gabriel Lundberg from Denmark, Marius Grigonis from Lithuania, Italian-American Daniel Hackett, and Russian-American Joel Bolomboy all left the team. Canadian-Slovenian Kevin Pangos who signed with CSKA one day before the war started never joined the team. The team informed them all that the departure means violating of their contracts and reached the agreements on terminating the contracts with all but one player, Joel Bolomboy, who was given a letter of clearance by FIBA to sign for Olympiacos Piraeus when his CSKA contract expired in summer of 2022. CSKA informed about the intention to sue Bolomboy for breaching his CSKA agreement earlier. On February 28, 2022, EuroLeague Basketball suspended the team because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. On March 22, 2022, CSKA, UNICS Kazan, and Zenit St. Petersburg were disqualified from the EuroLeague. In October 2022, CSKA Moscow president Andrey Vatutin said: "Owners and sponsors are in crisis and are not interested in spending big money just to participate in the VTB league – therefore the budget is reduced. We have left the international scene, so CSKA’s role in world basketball is declining." In the VTB United League, CSKA made the finals once again. Despite leading 3-1 in the finals, CSKA lost the last three games to Zenit St. Petersburg, who won the VTB title with a 4-3 series win - for the first time since 2010-2011, CSKA did not win the competition.