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Rakitskiy, 30, has been derided as a traitor over the transfer. He left the club in January for Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg, although his picture is still plastered on the outside of the Donbas Arena. Shakhtar refused.Įx-Shakhtar defender Yaroslav Rakitskiy, a Donbas native, faced repeated questioning in the press about his refusal to sing the national anthem when he played for Ukraine. There had been a previous incident in 2014 when the team were asked to wear shirts proclaiming 'Glory to the Ukrainian Army' before a game against Karpaty Lviv.
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The veterans' organisation blamed the Football Federation of Ukraine for intervening on Shakhtar's behalf, accusing it, somewhat dramatically, of "drinking the blood of simple Ukrainian patriots". In 2017, a Ukrainian nationalist organisation issued T-shirts to all teams in Ukraine's Premier League bearing supportive slogans for war veterans to be worn before kick-off. Who knows? Maybe in the future, Shakhtar could become the key to peace."Įven if they have left their home city, there is no way for Shakhtar to avoid the conflict altogether. For whatever business reasons he chose to sacrifice Donetsk and move the club away. Nikolai Tarapat, the DPR's sports minister, says: "It's up to Mr Akhmetov. "What he did for the city means nothing now." "His money and influence could have helped the city," he adds. Oleg Antipov, who used to work in Shakhtar's media department, says the city's people have "disowned" Akhmetov. To do so would be to give implicit recognition to the rebels and, besides, it would be impossible for visiting teams to cross the militarised line of contact between DPR and Ukrainian fighters. Shakhtar were forced to leave by the security situation when separatists took control of the city. Pallets left over from aid package deliveries stack up outside the Donbas Arena in 2015 But you'll hear little gratitude for the oligarch's charity here.
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Stepping down the players' tunnel, we tread the concrete corridors where mountains of food and medical supplies had been stored until 2017, transported in lorries from Ukraine as part of Shakhtar owner Rinat Akhmetov's 'Let's Help' aid drive. Victoria adds: "The job needs finishing and that takes money the DPR don't have." Once, there would have been an army of guides employed to show visitors round. "It was pretty costly to repair the roof after the blast pulled it off," says Victoria, a stadium guide. When Shakhtar meet Manchester City again in the Champions League this year, it won't be here but in Kharkiv, 100 miles to the west. It's had rudimentary repairs, but there's a long way to go before the place can be considered safe. The shockwaves shook part of the roof off. The stadium has been badly damaged twice - once when a shell crashed into the arena, starting a fire, and again when a Ukrainian rocket landed nearby. The only sign of its former life is a sign reading 'keep off the grass'. World champions Spain beat Portugal on penalties in front of a capacity crowd and the hundreds of millions watching on TV. The Donbas Arena hosted the Euro 2012 semi-final. One month earlier, Russia had annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in the south. Ukrainian forces retaliated with shelling. Two days later, the DPR flag was raised - illegally - over the police headquarters. Barely 18,000 turned up as the city braced for war. Shakhtar's glorious 50,000-capacity Donbas Arena was the setting for a 3-1 win against Illichivets Mariupol that secured a fifth straight league title. Moscow denies this, but admits that Russian "volunteers" are fighting for the rebels. The Ukrainian government accuses Russia of arming the separatists in the east, and also of sending troops to the region. The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) was established. The fighting had begun in April, when heavily armed pro-Russian separatists seized large areas of territory in Ukraine's Donbas region, including Donetsk. Shakhtar Donetsk, champions of Ukraine, one of the 20 best teams in Europe according to Uefa, external-link last played here in May 2014. Many of those who remain in Donetsk appear weakened by years of isolation and its football team - the heart of the city's social life - has fled. Situated in the east of Ukraine close to Russia's borders, it is now a key location in a bitter conflict that shows little sign of easing.Ībout 13,000 people have been killed, and the United Nations estimates at least 1.3 million have fled their homes. Donetsk is a city that once bristled with promise.