FOR someone who has had to spend the last 18 months trying to focus on his football with a threat of war hanging over him, perhaps it is understandable that Jeremain Lens is no longer too concerned about competing for titles and playing in the Champions League.

His time in the Ukraine, which he did enjoy to a point, has put things into perspective.

The Dutch forward found it hard at Dynamo Kiev while tensions between Ukraine and Russia have escalated. It is not that he has ever been directly threatened, but he was separated from his wife and three children for the majority of time he played there.

“The plan was that they would move to join me,” said Lens. “I’d only been there six months when the war started and I didn’t want my family to come over. When the political situation changed, I told them to stay in Holland.

“It was a tough decision, but in football you have to make them. It was not the best period for me and my family, but I did well professionally on the pitch. Coming to Sunderland, though, means I can be with my family again and that is important to me.”

Once Lens has settled on Wearside after his £8m switch he will fly his family over, having signed a four-year deal at Sunderland.

The Amsterdam-born playmaker won't forget what people have had to go through in Ukraine. He said: “I can remember the period when the Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down very well because it did scare me.

“I was on holiday in Ibiza, the plane left from Amsterdam and was shot down over eastern Ukraine. It was a horrible period. It just felt like the war was coming closer and closer to Kiev. Of course, I would have been flying from Amsterdam to get back to Ukraine and I feared what could happen to me or my family.”

One of Lens’ compatriots, Gregory Nelson, played for Metalurh Donetsk in the more troubled eastern part of Ukraine, so he heard even more horror stories of what was going on.

Lens explained: “It was a big thing all over the world. The players from the clubs in the east, for example Shakhtar Donetesk, they had to move immediately. The war started in Kiev, but it moved over to the east where there are a lot of Russians.

“Those players had to live for 18 months in a hotel or rent a new apartment. They lost everything. It was awful, very difficult. It was far more difficult than it was for me.

“The stadium of Shakhtar was taken by the Russian soldiers, or whatever the people were (separatists). They had a lot of players who lost cars, houses, everything there, because it was just one day and everybody needed to go. They went to Kiev, leaving everything behind.”

Having made the decision to start a new life in England and turn his back on further title charges with Dynamo Kiev, Lens is desperate to enjoy his new life in the North-East.

He is not going to make wild predictions, but ahead of this afternoon’s Premier League opener at Leicester City he is quietly optimistic that Sunderland can surprise this season.

“I am looking forward to playing against good defenders,” said the 29-cap Holland international. “The last two years I was against normal defenders, while most of them in the Premier League are from an international high level. That is going to be a good test for me.

“Everyone knows already we are not playing for the champions. That means we are going to lose some games and it is going to be hard to accept if we lose more than we win. I hope it will be the other way around, but as I already said we have got to be realistic.”

He has been linked with Premier League teams chasing titles in the past, so why has it taken him so long to make the switch to England?

“I’ve always wanted to play here. I’ve had a few options to come, but I decided to take a chance in Ukraine,” he said. “I like to have tough challenges in my career and so I went to Dynamo Kiev, who had not been champions for six or seven years.

“I was there two years and we won the title and the cup twice, so it was a good period for me. In this club I also see a good challenge; we are aiming to climb as high as possible in the league. We don’t want to be fighting to stay in the division. That is where this club has been too often in recent years and that is what we want to change.”