Shakhtar Donetsk will play their home Champions League fixtures at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge this season, with AEK Athens the first visitors on Wednesday. The arrangement gives the Ukrainian club a London base after more than a decade of displacement. Shakhtar have been without a home in Donetsk since the Russian-backed capture of the city in 2014, and the search for a new base has taken them to Kyiv, Lviv and Kharkiv in Ukraine, as well as Poland, Slovenia and Germany for European games.
For Artem Genne, a Shakhtar supporter who now lives in the West Midlands, the London fixtures carry deep personal meaning. His favourite footballing memory is standing on the Donbas Arena pitch and waving the Champions League flag before Shakhtar faced Chelsea in 2012. He aims to attend all four Stamford Bridge home games. “When the invasion started, lots of people left, thinking that it’s all going to be over in several weeks, we’ll be coming back. But unfortunately, that didn’t happen,” he said. He added that meeting people from his home area abroad gives a sense of home and hope, and that walking around in a Shakhtar shirt in the UK has brought support, high fives and no aggression.
Dima Prasolov, who left Donetsk for Kyiv after the war started and now lives in Kent, is another supporter set to benefit. He said he was ecstatic because it was the first time in about 15 years that he would be able to buy some sort of season ticket for Shakhtar. Fans can buy a four-game pass for the London fixtures. Prasolov described the situation as emotional because of how much the club means to him and his family, and said that since the Russian invasion, watching their team regularly has been almost impossible for Donbas people.
The club’s off-field reality remains difficult. Chief executive Sergei Palkin said Shakhtar have had to move their under-12 team to a safer area of Kyiv following recent attacks, while their women’s side had a match disrupted by a nearby drone strike. “Every day when our team goes to the pitch, it’s much more than football because behind it we have a lot of challenges every day,” Palkin said. He described uncertainty as the most difficult and important challenge, explaining that people wake up not knowing what will happen that day or the next. Palkin added that part of Shakhtar’s role when they play in London and other European cities is to send messages and remind people what is going on.
Wednesday’s occasion is also a chance for Ukrainians to come together in London, including rival fans. Genne said two of his friends support Dynamo Kyiv, but in Europe they support each other. He described it as representation of the country, and said the hooligans no longer fight with each other because they know they have one enemy, and it is not a football enemy.
The decision to play in London has been met with some scepticism in Ukraine because of the difficulty for fans to visit the UK. A visa costs £135 and must be applied for at least three months before entering. One Shakhtar fan, speaking anonymously but attending many home and away games in Ukraine, said that sort of money is a monthly income for some Ukrainians and that no-one has time in Ukraine now to wait a few months for a visa. The fan said fans want to support the team but cannot travel because the regulation in England is crazy now. Instead, supporters will watch in pubs all over the country, with support coming from beyond Shakhtar’s traditional fanbase.
Ticket demand suggests the London experiment will draw a wider Ukrainian audience. When tickets went on sale for Shakhtar’s away leg against Crystal Palace in the Europa Conference League semi-final last season, and when they played Arsenal in the 2024-25 Champions League campaign, their allocation sold out in an hour. Prasolov said the club are making a big gamble on the existing Ukrainian population in London, pointing to a big Ukrainian diaspora in west London that has been there for years. He expected lots of Ukrainian national songs and chants and described a friendly atmosphere.
The club are also using the fixtures to strengthen ties with Ukrainians living in London. Palkin said Shakhtar have a good connection with the Ukrainian diaspora in England and will organise activities with Ukrainian children living in London, visiting schools, bringing children to training sessions and connecting them with the team. London has welcomed many of the roughly 265,000 Ukrainians who took refuge in the UK, and Shakhtar hope to keep raising awareness of issues faced back home.
Palkin stressed the importance of visibility during the war. “For Ukraine, it’s very important to be visible at this moment of our history. And for us it’s very important because we are playing for our nation,” he said. He noted that 99% of news coming from Ukraine is negative, and said seeing Ukraine represented in a tournament like the Champions League sends one message: that Ukraine is alive, continues to fight, continues to work, continues to live and continues to compete on that stage.
Amir, another Shakhtar supporter in the UK who left Donetsk at 15 and now lives in London, said the club’s presence in the Champions League is a beacon of hope. He said seeing Ukrainian sportsmen succeeding internationally gives reassurance and a sense of power to the Ukrainian people, and that it offers a reconnection to their roots and national achievements for Ukrainians living abroad. He added that it is important internationally as a reminder of the regional roots of Shakhtar and of Donetsk overall.
After AEK Athens, Real Madrid, Sporting and Fenerbahce will also visit Stamford Bridge. Shakhtar’s general director is hoping for an average of 30,000 supporters across the four home games. For Genne, the matches offer something more than football. “Any sort of positive news, any positive results, are bringing people joy and making us a little bit happier,” he said. He said they do not make him forget everything else happening, but they bring a little more joy, like remembering what joy of life is in supporting your club, having fun, coming together and having a sense of community. It is, he said, way more than just football and analysing a player’s performance and goals.