Donbas Arena: How Shakhtar's £318m stadium became an overgrown ruin with explosive warnings

The Donbas Arena, the £318 million stadium that once hosted England at Euro 2012 and Champions League football against Manchester United and Arsenal, now sits derelict in war-torn Donetsk — its pitch overgrown, its facade scarred by artillery, and its perimeter marked with signs warning of unexploded ordnance.

Shakhtar Donetsk played their final match at the ground on 27 April 2014, a 3-1 win over Illichivets Mariupol that secured a fifth consecutive Ukrainian league title in front of fewer than 18,000 supporters as the city braced for armed conflict. Within months, the UEFA Category 4 facility had been shelled as Ukrainian armed forces clashed with pro-Russian separatists for control of Donetsk. A shell struck the arena and sparked a blaze; a rocket landed close to the stadium grounds. Images from the period show portions of the roof and facade obliterated and debris scattered across the surrounding area.

Opened in August 2009 at a cost of £318 million, the 52,000-seat ground was built as a statement of ambition for a country that had declared independence from the Soviet Union less than two decades earlier. It hosted five matches at Euro 2012 — jointly staged by Ukraine and Poland — including England’s 1-1 draw with France and their 1-0 victory over the co-hosts in the group stage.

By 2019, a stadium guide told the BBC that repairs to the roof had proved prohibitively expensive. “It was pretty costly to repair the roof after the blast pulled it off,” they said. “The job needs finishing, and that takes money the DPR don’t have.”

Recent photographs show the site in an even worse state of decay. Grass has reclaimed the pitch and the surrounding areas, while warning signs read: “DO NOT WALK ON THE LAWN! CAUTION! EXPLOSIVE OBJECTS MAY BE PRESENT.”

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, inflicted further damage on the arena and has made any prospect of restoration deeply uncertain. Since the conflict began, Shakhtar have played home matches in Lviv and Kyiv, as well as in Germany and Poland. The club will host their Champions League fixtures this season at Stamford Bridge in London, with their opening group-stage game against AEK Athens scheduled for Wednesday.

The Donbas Arena, once a symbol of Ukrainian football’s rise, now stands as one of the conflict’s most visible casualties.