Shakhtar Donetsk brings message of resilience and investment to Champions League nights at Stamford Bridge

With Russian strikes a constant reality, the Ukrainian club heads to London not just to play in Europe but to showcase business resilience and attract vital investment On Aug. 5 a logistics warehouse belonging to kit manufacturer Puma was destroyed by a Russian ballistic missile. That this in itself might seem an unremarkable event says everything about the trials endured by the Ukrainian people in the four and a half years since their country was invaded. That it seems unremarkable to Serhii Palkin, chief executive of Shakhtar Donetsk, says even more about the tribulations that the Ukrainian champions have been through. In that warehouse was the retail supply of 2026-27 home kits.

Shakhtar will spend the months ahead playing Champions League games at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge. For the clubs they face there, losing thousands of dollars of stock would be a crisis. For Palkin, it has long been normal. When I ask him to reflect on how Shakhtar coped after the missile strike, he takes out his phone. A few taps and swipes and he has brought up a video of a three-story building that looks to be in the heart of Kyiv, flames consuming its limestone grandeur. Having your home kit blown up might seem an unimaginable difficulty, but for Shakhtar it is just another day. "Two weeks ago