Shakhtar Donetsk hasn't had a home for a long time.

Expelled from their own Donbass Arena, guests in Lviv, Kharkiv and most recently in Kyiv – the ten-time Ukrainian champion has been practically on the run since 2014.

The situation has drastically worsened due to Russia's war of aggression.

An evening like the game in the Champions League on Tuesday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Champions League and on DAZN) at RB Leipzig should provide a little distraction – and is still all about the fight.

"Like the soldiers on the front line, we have a duty to Ukraine and that is to play football," said sporting director Darijo Srna.

The long-serving captain of Shakhtar has known war and expulsion since he was a child.

During the Balkan War, his family fled southern Croatia for safer areas of the country.

"We will show the whole world that we are still alive and will fight for Ukraine on the pitch," said the 40-year-old.

"It's the time to survive, be like family and create something beautiful.

We won't disappoint Ukraine.” Whether that will work is highly questionable.

Limited leeway

Because Shakhtar has changed.

While the team was dominated by Brazilian professionals for many years, now almost all foreign professionals are gone.

Midfielder Neven Djurasek was added in July - again new coach Igor Jovicevic from Croatia.

Up front is Lassina Traoré from Burkina Faso, who joined from Ajax last summer.

In the league they are still unbeaten after three games, but the level can hardly be assessed without an international comparison.

Of course, the club wants to use the Champions League stage to campaign for peace at home.

Whether initiatives or fundraisers can take place is still open.

“We have not yet discussed this topic.

Unfortunately, in Champions League games you have to follow the guidelines set by UEFA quite strictly, so the scope is limited," commercial director Dmitry Kirilenko told the Polish online platform Sport.Interia.

In order to be able to compete in the premier class at all, Shakhtar already takes on a lot.

From exile in Kyiv, where the club has been housed in a luxury hotel owned by President Rinat Akhmetov since 2014, the team moved to Warsaw in early August.

“The team – players, coaches, medical staff – will be based in Warsaw and travel to Ukraine for league games and then back to Champions League games.

But the club, the office and the rest of the people stay in Kyiv," Kirilenko said.

Logistically everything is a big challenge.

“When we made the decision, we calculated how many kilometers the team would have to cover between September and November.

That's about 8,000 to 10,000 kilometers.

And that's without the away games in the Champions League that are still ahead of us.

We only counted trips to Champions League matches in Warsaw and to league matches," Kirilenko explained.

The decision in favor of Warsaw was not only made for logistical reasons.

"I think this is the best possible solution for us.

It's very close to Ukraine, and there are also a lot of Ukrainians living in Warsaw," said Kirilenko, hoping for Legia supporters in the premier class: "We knew that Legia had a large number of fans.

As far as I know about 9000 fans have season tickets.

There is an incredible atmosphere at the games.”

The contract also states that the stands will be opened to Legia fans.

This move paid off immediately, with 30 percent of the tickets sold on the first day.