Shakhtar Donetsk is nearing a significant milestone: they will soon have spent a decade playing away from their home. It has been ten long and challenging years on the road.
The circumstances have become more difficult since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. However, the conflict in the Donbas region had been ongoing for several years before that date.
When did Shakhtar Donetsk last play at home?
In 2014, Shakhtar last played at their Donbas Arena in Donetsk. This stadium was meant to be their home—a fortress for a club that was excelling both domestically and in European competitions.
Opened in 2009 at an estimated cost of €176 million, the stadium was developed under the leadership of Rinat Akhmetov, the President of Shakhtar and a Ukrainian oligarch. The venue hosted matches during Euro 2012 and regularly welcomed crowds of over 40,000 spectators.
All was going well, or so it seemed.
Fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-aligned separatists escalated in 2014, to the extent that would change the dynamic in the recent and the football club would be a consequence of that. The newly developed Donetsk Airport was attacked, as was the stadium. It was hit hard by shelling, but the conflict meant that football was the least of the worries.
Shakhtar moved west, firstly to Lviv, then Kharkiv and finally Kyiv, which was been their adopted venue since 2018, but it is far from home in more ways than one. Players have been living and training in the capital in what is an overall unique situation.
The man who made the ‘Miners’: Rinat Akhmetov
As named above, Rinat Akhmetov is the figure behind the finances and the plan to put the club on the map.
That was achieved in some style before the landscape would be altered significantly and their physical location changed, and changed again.
Under Akhmetov, Shakhtar had placed particular emphasis on signing Brazilian players, with a dazzling shine in the outcome of that policy. Around €300 million has been spent on players such as Fernandinho, Fred, and Douglas Costa.
The boss, an oligarch who was a former professional boxer, is one of Ukraine’s richest men. He assumed control of the club in the mid-1990s and has put in an extraordinary amount of money, around €1.5bn – he has an estimated personal fortune of around €7bn as a reported owner of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol – to push Shakhtar from a lowly status to achievers and competitors on the elite European stage.
Shakhtar Donetsk on the European stage
In 2020, the ‘Miners' – named for the rich coal deposits in the Donbas – reached the semifinal of the Europa League, a competition they won in 2009 when they beat Werder Bremen in the final to crown the club's greatest European triumph.
In Istanbul’s Sukru Saracoglu Stadium, a 2-1 victory was achieved in extra time, thanks to goals from Luiz Adriano and Jadson, two Samba stars who were brought to Eastern Europe at significant expense.
In 2011, they reached the Champions League quarter-finals but were defeated by Barcelona. They later made it to the Europa League semi-finals in 2016 but lost to the eventual winners, Sevilla. In 2020, they were eliminated by Inter Milan.
Shakhtar did not perform well on the European stage during the 2024/25 season. They were eliminated in the eighth round by Borussia Dortmund, who defeated them 3-1 in the second leg. Although Shakhtar secured a 2-0 victory in the first leg at Gelsenkirchen, playing the return leg in Germany against a team with massive support at Signal Iduna Park meant their European journey ended at the league stage.
These records reflect a strong European pedigree, supported by 14 Ukrainian league titles since the 2001/02 season, including last season's championship.
Where are Shakhtar Donetsk playing?
In the current campaign, Shakhtar’s UEFA Champions League games are being hosted by Hamburg SV in their wonderful Volksparkstadion. It's a fantastic setting and backdrop, but it offers little in the way of home advantage.
Since the Russian invasion and full-scale war, the Shakhtar squad has much more of a local feel to it. The 13 Brazilians contracted to the club at the time were able to flee, representing a new and very different chapter for the club.
On that fateful 24 February, Shakhtar Donetsk defender Mykola Matviienko was sleeping in bed, next to his wife and child in Kyiv.
“I heard explosions outside the window, and we immediately jumped up,” he said.
“We spent the rest of the night in the car until we got the message that Kyiv was under attack, and we had to leave.”
This is a Ukrainian international footballer speaking of an uncertain time and an abnormal situation compared to the detached bubble in which the professional game usually exists. This is their real world.
What will Shakhtar Donetsk do next?
Supporters, ex-players and officials of Shakhtar and other clubs have taken part in the conflict. The duty is apparent, as is the inevitability of loss. Current players have a special exemption to travel outside of the country, as men of fighting age are not supposed to leave, but at some point, the players could feel that they must enlist.
Chief Executive Serhiy Palkin revealed in 2022 that “one of our members of staff, a youth coach, died yesterday. He was killed by shrapnel from a Russian shell. Russia is killing Ukrainians. Stop this madness!”
In recent times, Shakhtar embarked on a ‘peace tour’, playing friendly games abroad whilst carrying the national flag and drumming up support and awareness for the situation in the country, as well as raising funds for the war effort.
What has happened to the Ukrainian football league?
A condensed and much-changed Ukrainian league has since returned, centred on Kyiv, but the uncertainty lingers.
Former Croatia international and current director Darijo Srna, a club legend, stated of their present plight amid the conflict, “They attack our country, our land.”
Srna is a former Shakhtar captain whose shirt number 33 was retired by the club.
“But in the end, we are still here, we are still alive.”
A homecoming? That won't be easy anytime soon, as much as veteran goalkeeper and captain Andriy Payatov yearns for that sense of belonging.
“I still dream about it, as do all the players, but we know that it won't happen overnight.”
Donetsk has effectively become a stronghold of the new Kremlin-backed leadership in Ukraine's largely Russian-speaking and aligned east, much of it annexed.
The conflict rages on, as does football, in an emphatic matter of priorities but this beautiful game and all it represents, the most important, unimportant thing in the world provides its refuge and escape from the hell of war and the ugly reality of life as it is for Shakhtar Donetsk and the people all across the conflict zone.
How has Shakhtar Donetsk fared in the 2024/25 season?
The Russian-Ukrainian war is far from over, with intensified fighting continuing as late as May 2025. However, the Ukrainian Premier League has remained resilient, completing the 2024/25 season.
During the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons, Shakhtar Donetsk claimed the title with 72 and 71 points, respectively. This season, however, the Pitmen fell short of their previous successes, finishing in third place with 62 points, which means they will participate in the UEFA Europa League next season.
From 2020 to 2023, Shakhtar Donetsk played domestic league matches in Kyiv but returned to Arena Lviv for the 2024/25 season. Notably, they had previously used this venue between 2014 and 2016 for their Premier League matches.
The outcome of the 2024/25 has forced the club to appoint a new head coach, as was announced on 27 May 2025 ahead of the 2025/26 season.
👏 Кар’єра нашого нового головного тренера в цифрах і фактах 📊#Turkey #Türkiye pic.twitter.com/3J4Uf5WLgH
— ⚒FC SHAKHTAR DONETSK (@FCShakhtar) May 28, 2025