SHAKHTAR OWNER PLEDGES $25M TO UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS, FAMILIES

Rinat Akhmetov, the owner of Shakhtar Donetsk, pledged on Monday to donate $25 million to the families of soldiers who defended Mariupol when it was attacked by the Russian military.

Shakhtar completed a deal worth up to 100 million euros ($108 million) to sell winger Mykhailo Mudryk to Chelsea the day before Akhmetov announced the donation, though the Ukrainian club said the money pledged by Akhmetov did not come from the transfer.

“The funds will be used to meet a variety of needs, including medical and prosthetic treatment, psychological support, and meeting specific requests,” Akhmetov said in a statement posted on Shakhtar’s website.

During the fall of Mariupol, the fighters who defended the Azovstal steel plant, which is owned by Akhmetov’s Metinvest, became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance in the early months of the invasion.

“Their brave acts are unparalleled in modern history,” Akhmetov said at the launch of the “Heart of Azovstal” project.

Shakhtar has been a mainstay in the Champions League since Akhmetov became club president in 1996, winning the second-tier UEFA Cup in 2009 and developing the Donbas Arena, which helped host the 2012 European Championship.

Shakhtar has been exiled from Donetsk since 2014, during a conflict with pro-Russian forces, and since February of this year, during the war. The main stadium was damaged but not destroyed, and the Ukrainian Premier League is now played in Kyiv and the country’s west.

Akhmetov expressed confidence that Ukraine would win the “horrible and unjust war,” and that “we will play a friendly against Chelsea at Donbas Arena in a Ukrainian Donetsk.”