Donbas Arena
Semi-finals of the UEFA Euro soccer championship. Concerts by Beyoncé and Rihanna. Numerous Champions League games. Tens of thousands of people in the stands. It is all about Donbas Arena, Donetsk's main stadium.
It was built in 2009. It was the first stadium in Eastern Europe to meet the “five-star” category standards. And international soccer organizations classified the Donbas Arena as “elite.”
The opening ceremony was spectacular – a choreographic show, performances by Ukrainian music stars, and finally a concert from American pop queen Beyoncé.
In just a few years, it was even more spectacular as 50 thousand fans from all over the world cheered for their national teams at Euro 2012. Donbas Arena hosted 5 games, including the quarter-finals and semi-finals.
Shakhtar Donetsk defeated Chelsea, Roma, and Arsenal in the Champions League. However, another game became a special one...
On May 2, 2014, the Donetsk team played against Illichivets Mariupol. This game was the last one ever played by Shakhtar in the Donbas Arena. Russia launched a hybrid war against Ukraine and occupied Donetsk. Hundreds of thousands of people were no longer asking for a ticket to the stadium, but a way to flee to the territory controlled by the legitimate Ukrainian authorities.
Since then, the Donbas Arena has not hosted a single game. Nowadays, it is an image of desolation rather than one of goals, joyful chanting, or loud concerts. One of the best world stadiums is slowly decaying, a sad microcosm of what has happened to the entire region in the last 10 years.
Here is a video of Donbas Arena today: https://t.me/championua/4987