It may be that after years of stories involving espionage, inflated transfers and refereeing scandals across world football, a case like this no longer feels as extraordinary as it should. And yet it is.
Let’s start with the facts. According to The Guardian, UEFA has yet to take action over the integration of several clubs into the Russian football system — clubs representing Ukrainian territories under illegal occupation and effectively operating as replicas of Shakhtar Donetsk and Zorya Luhansk, two of the most established names in Ukrainian football. This comes despite formal requests made last year by the Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF).
These sides have been joined by two clubs from Crimea, Rubin Yalta and Sevastopol, in Group 1 of the Russian Football National League 2B. Today, roughly a quarter of the teams in the competition are linked to Ukrainian territories under Russian occupation.
Last October, the UAF sent an official letter to UEFA asking it to “investigate the status and activities of the clubs,” “clarify their legal position,” and “communicate the outcome of its review.” No formal response has been made public, while the clubs involved have continued to establish themselves within the Russian football structure.
The so-called Shakhtar Donetsk side, which plays its home matches in the Russian city of Taganrog while still listing Donetsk as its official base, currently leads its league with seven wins from nine games. It was admitted directly into League 2B after taking part in a tournament for clubs from occupied territories.
On its official website, the club presents itself as the continuation of Shakhtar Donetsk — the real one, fresh from winning its 16th Ukrainian league title and qualifying for the Champions League — even celebrating the parent club’s 90th anniversary as its own.
A similar case applies to the so-called “Zorya Luhansk.” As early as 2025, The Guardian had already reported on the club’s participation in the Russian Third League, the fifth tier of the domestic system. Despite no sporting promotion, it was later admitted into the Football National League 2B.
Its home matches are played in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, in southern Russia, while training sessions reportedly take place between Luhansk and other occupied areas of Ukraine.
Rubin Yalta and Sevastopol, meanwhile, have been part of the Russian football pyramid for the past three years and continue to compete in occupied Crimea.
Almost three years ago, UEFA said it was assessing the situation involving Crimean clubs, after the Ukrainian federation called for the suspension of the Russian Football Union (RFU) from UEFA and FIFA. Since then, however, no concrete measures or publicly disclosed investigations have been extended to the inclusion of additional clubs from occupied territories within the Russian system.
The RFU has previously claimed that League 2B is an amateur competition and not formally under its jurisdiction. Yet inspections carried out at several clubs in the division last year have already cast doubt on that version of events. The official website of the so-called Shakhtar, in fact, describes the competition as professional.
In an interview published online, the club’s president, Igor Petrov, openly stated the ambition: to reach “the elite of Russian football” as quickly as possible.
A club called Shakhtar, carrying a history that is not its own, but that of an institution it has effectively replaced.