Shakhtar Donetsk - keeping Ukraine football alive in the shadow of war

Full scale war in Ukraine passed its second anniversary last week but war has affected the existence of Shakhtar Donetsk, the country’s most successful football club of modern times, for a decade now.

Well run, well supported, well backed and successful, Shakhtar long developed players, bought well and sold even better. Mykhaylo Mudryk, Fred, Alex Teixeira, Fernandinho, Willian, Douglas Costa and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were all sold for huge fees having thrived at Shakhtar, serial Ukrainian champions this century.

Money was reinvested and they also spent far more than any other Ukrainian side – the country’s top 10 most expensive transfers were all to the club which carries Donetsk in its name but hasn’t played there for a decade.

In 2009 they became the second Ukrainian club after Dynamo Kiev and the first since independence to win a European trophy, the Uefa Cup. They’re ranked 25th in Europe, down from being the top 15 club that they were pre-2014, but still above the likes of AC Milan and Tottenham Hotspur in Uefa’s coefficient rankings.

Serhiy Palkin, 49, joined in 2003 and two moments stand out for the club’s long-standing lead executive.

“These were in 2014 when we were forced to leave our stadium and our city after conflict broke out when Russia took control of Donetsk,” the 49-year-old tells The National when we meet him for a face-to-face interview in a London hotel. “And 2022 when full scale war broke out. We have been existing under a war for 10 years now. We lost our normal life ten years ago.”

The lives of players, managers and club staff have changed completely.

“First we moved to Kiev in 2014 and then in 2022 we moved to Lviv, 1,000 kilometres from Donetsk. We did that because we continue to play in European