“The stadium is still in good shape, considering the conflict in Donetsk,” Shakhtar official Yuri Shrivdov told ESPN. “But it has an underground car park, so the reason we believe it has avoided too much damage is because it’s being used by the Russians to store their weapons.”
Donetsk is now at the heart of the conflict in the Donbas region, a city that was placed under martial law by Russian president Vladimir Putin last month after what western governments described as the “illegal annexation” of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. The city is largely in ruins and much of its pre-war population of 920,000 has sought refuge in western Ukraine or countries such as Poland, Moldova and Romania. But the name of Donetsk is still represented by Shakhtar in the Champions League, and for team captain Taras Stepanenko, it is vital that they keep the name of the city alive.
“The name of our team is Shakhtar Donetsk and we represent our city and our region,” Stepanenko told ESPN in an interview at the team’s hotel in Warsaw. “We have done this since 2014, but now we represent all of Ukraine because only one team is playing at the high level in Europe and that is Shakhtar.
With difficult roads to negotiate and border checks — Shakhtar players must take their place in the queues like every other citizen — a 250-mile journey between Lviv and Warsaw that would take less than 50 minutes in normal times can now take up to ten hours. Every road trip in Ukraine is precisely that — done on a bus between Kyiv and Lviv — but when they play in the Champions League, it is the same arduous journey to Poland and then a flight to wherever the draw takes them.
This season, Shakhtar have travelled to Madrid, Glasgow and Leipzig for group games against Real, Celtic and RB Leipzig, while playing all of their home games at Legia Warsaw’s Marshall Jozef Pilsudski Stadium. There have been no easy rides.
“Psychologically, it can destroy you,” coach Jovicevic told ESPN. “After the game against Leipzig, we have a 10-hour journey home.
“For other teams, it is rest, they can go to the jacuzzi, have a massage, go to the barbecue with their family. No other team in Europe has to do it like us, we are travelling all the time, so there is a real accumulation of mental and physical fatigue. But it is all relative. We are playing Champions League and all of my players have been ready to fight every game, whether to continue in the Champions League or go to the Europa. Both are amazing achievements.”
