KIEV, Ukraine -- Shakhtar Donetsk has for decades been one of Eastern Europe's premier soccer clubs. It has won Ukraine's premier league five years straight, and it's $400 million Donbass Arena played host to the Euro 2012 championships.
But for nearly a year, as war rages in eastern Ukraine, the 50,000 seat stadium has sat empty, damaged by shelling, and the club has been displaced, along with more than 1 million residents of the regions. More than 6,100 others have been killed, many in Donetsk.
Shakhtar now lives in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, and plays home matches in the western city of Lviv, a far cry from the coal mines and miners for which the club is named. Players and staff hope to return home soon. But with no end to the war in the east in sight, it may be a while yet before Shakhtar plays a match on its own pitch.