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Ukrainian Shakhtar Donetsk's trip to London does not seem like just a move from one city to another to play a match in the Champions League. Rather, it summarizes the story of a club trying to maintain its sporting presence in light of an ongoing war, which made playing on its soil impossible, and turned long trips across borders and airports into a fixed part of its daily program.

The team that is preparing to play its European matches in the British capital, hosting its rivals at Stamford Bridge, does not have the luxury of stability that other European clubs enjoy. Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, its matches on paper have become classified as home matches held outside the country, while its players move between Ukraine, Poland, and other European countries, searching for safe stadiums that allow them to continue competing.

Shakhtar, led by its coach Arda Turan, will face AEK Athens in London, as part of a European trip that carries dimensions that go beyond points and qualification calculations. The club wants to remain present in the continental scene, and to turn its sporting participation into a message about the ability of Ukrainians to continue, despite the conditions of war.

Turan said that playing in a stadium the size of Stamford Bridge carries special feelings, but he stressed that the stadium, no matter how high its status, cannot compensate the team for the loss of playing at home. He added that the absence of a home stadium makes the task very difficult, but the team is still clinging to its dream and the internal strength it possesses.

Before the trip to London, Shakhtar players were living an apparently normal day at their residence near the city of Lviv in western Ukraine. The players who did not participate in the previous match trained, while Turan and Director of Football, Dario Srna, exchanged banter on the sidelines of the training session.

But the peaceful scene was only a temporary respite from the reality of war. Alarm sirens sounded in the dawn hours, reminding everyone that the danger of Russian missiles and drones does not exclude the western regions of the country. In the team's match against Veres Rivne, the players and technical staff were forced to take refuge in a shelter, and the start of the second half was delayed by about 20 minutes.

These details reveal part of the circumstances facing the club, as the repercussions of the war do not stop at the difficulty of travel or the absence of a stadium, but rather extend to the simplest details of daily work, from training to accommodation, all the way to the administrative procedures that foreign players need.

Vitaly Klevniuk, director of sports management at Shakhtar, said that the psychological burdens increase over time. He likened the matter to sleep deprivation, explaining that the body may be able to get through one night without rest, but fatigue accumulates with the repetition of the experience, until the psychological stress becomes more difficult than the physical exhaustion.

He added that his office has turned, as he described it, into a crisis management room, due to sudden problems that constantly appear. During preparations for the final trip, the club faced administrative complications after the system for issuing new residence permits for foreign players and workers stopped, after systems in Kiev were damaged as a result of the Russian bombing.

The team's journey began by leaving their residence near Lviv in a convoy of small cars, each carrying four or five people, before heading to the Krakowice border crossing with Poland.

The trip to the crossing took less than two hours, and then the players and the delegation needed about an hour and a quarter to complete the procedures on both sides of the border. After that, the team continued its way through Polish territory to Jeszów Airport, where the mission faced another problem related to the entry permit of one of the players to the United Kingdom, after the electronic system failed to match his passport data. The problem was not resolved until about half an hour before boarding time.

The delegation arrived in London after a trip that took about nine hours since leaving the residence in Ukraine, in a trip that the players described as one of the less difficult trips compared to previous experiences.

Brazilian striker Kawa Elias says that he did not realize the extent of the challenges associated with travel when he joined the club, but he got used to it over time. He explained that the presence of a large number of Brazilian players helps him adapt, noting that they meet weekly in Lviv to prepare Brazilian barbecue meals and alleviate the burden of the exceptional circumstances they are living in.

As for Dario Srna, he believes that the extent of suffering cannot be fully understood from outside experience. He pointed out that the team is required to play 9 matches within 29 days, including three matches in the Champions League, in addition to frequent trips back to Ukraine to participate in local competitions.

These circumstances impose an additional challenge on the technical staff led by Turan, who must balance the requirements of European competition, prepare for local matches, and maintain the players’ physical and mental readiness.

Since taking over the leadership of Shakhtar in May 2025, Arda Turan has tried to build a relationship that goes beyond the traditional professional framework with his players, based on an emotional personality and strong presence, and on the conviction that the club’s role in times of war is not limited to results.

The Turkish coach confirms that he has become part of the Shakhtar family and its story, and that seeing the children smiling when meeting the team gives him a feeling that his presence may carry value beyond football.

Turan said that raising the voice of the Ukrainian people and reminding them of their suffering represents part of his responsibility, stressing that the team will not accept that the war turns into a natural reality that everyone accepts.

Turan, who previously excelled as a player with Atletico Madrid, has special memories of facing Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. He scored a goal in the Champions League semi-final in 2014, when the Spanish team succeeded in providing a strong performance away from home.

The coach recalls that experience during his current stay in London, although the circumstances were completely different this time. Instead of playing a European match as a player seeking to reach the final, he returns to the same field as coach of a team carrying with him the suffering of an entire country.

Shakhtar Donetsk chose Stamford Bridge to host its European matches this season, after choosing between three stadiums in London. The club hopes that at least 25,000 fans will attend its match against AEK Athens, as part of a series of confrontations that include a visit to Real Madrid next January.

The club's ties to the British capital are not limited to football; Met Invest, the sister company of one of the companies linked to the club’s owner, contributed to providing five thousand tons of steel used in the construction of The Shard, one of London’s most prominent architectural landmarks.

The players also wear T-shirts bearing the message of the “Invest in Ukraine” campaign, in an attempt to link the sports team’s presence with calls to support the country.

On the technical level, Shakhtar seeks to enhance its chances of reaching the qualifying round for the knockout rounds, after drawing with Dutch club PSV Eindhoven in the opening round of its European campaign.

But Dario Srna believes that the value of the public attendance goes beyond the result, saying that supporting Shakhtar also means supporting Ukraine, at a time when citizens are living under the sound of sirens and bombing.

He added that the team wants to prove to the world that it is still alive, strong and united, and that it will continue fighting until the end.

For Shakhtar players, this message does not eliminate fatigue and does not shorten distances. After the end of the match in London, they will have to return to Ukraine and prepare to face Kolos Kovalivka in the local league, on Saturday.

It is a recurring cycle of travel, play and return, which does not seem to have an end in sight, in light of the continuing war and the impossibility of hosting European matches inside the country.

However, the club insists on continuing the journey. Klevniuk sums up the team's philosophy by saying that there are Ukrainian citizens who live in harsher conditions than the conditions of the players and club workers, and that knowing that a win or a tie might give people a moment of hope in the midst of darkness makes continuing worth it.

For Shakhtar Donetsk, football is no longer just a competition for titles; It is an attempt to preserve a semblance of normalcy, and a message that the war, no matter how long it lasted, did not take away from the team its desire to play, nor from its fans their ability to hope.