Devastating state of Shakhtar Donetsk’s Donbas Arena with gaping hole in side as war-hit team play at Stamford Bridge

THE DONBAS ARENA has taken a beating since Shakhtar Donetsk last played a match there in 2014. And new pictures have revealed the sorry state the Ukrainian giants’ 53,000-capacity stadium has fallen into. The country’s ongoing conflict with Russia has forced Shakhtar to become footballing nomads. They relocated their home games to Lviv when Russia annexed Crimea and war broke out in the Donbas region in 2014. Three years later, Shakhtar moved to Kharkhiv to be closer to their supporters. And then three years on from that, they began sharing Dynamo Kyiv’s Olympic Stadium.