ISTANBUL: They had already fled their home in eastern Ukraine for Kyiv when their shiny new stadium was battered by shelling in the first weeks of a Russian-backed insurgency in 2014.
Now the players of Ukraine’s perennial football champions Shakhtar Donetsk are training in Turkey because of the all-out invasion by Russia of their former Soviet state.
Team and national squad captain Andriy Pyatov — an imposing 37-year-old goalkeeper who has played at some of Europe’s most famous grounds over his illustrious career — is tired of life in exile.
“It is very difficult to keep losing your home,” he said during a…
