Shakhtar Donetsk defender Yaroslav Rakitskiy commented on the Russian stage of his career for the first time. In January 2019, after 10 years of playing for the first team of Shakhtar, the Pitmen's graduate moved to Zenit St. Petersburg, which is why he stopped being called up to the Ukrainian national team. After the Russian Federation unleashed a full-scale war against Ukraine, he terminated the contract with Zenit, and also called on the Russians to stop the war. The 33-year-old football player tried to justify himself for playing in a terrorist country for a long time. According to him, the events since February 24, 2022 " " Football is my job and my life's work. And in Russia, I only did what I played football. And when a full-scale war began on February 24, 2022, I decided on the same day to break the contract and return to Ukraine. This action is my answer.. No one could have imagined such a scale of aggression: that Russians would kill Ukrainians by the thousands, destroy our cities. If I had known that this would happen, I would never have gone to play in Russia! Moreover, I think that until February 2022, many people did not take it so hard: look, the World Cup was held in Russia, the Champions League final was to be held, many Ukrainians continued to live and work in Russia, countries traded among themselves. But February 24 put everything in its place - in one day everyone realized that we, the civilized world, have nothing in common with the Russian Federation. Therefore, I am here in Ukraine - together with my country, with my people.

And this is my answer to all questions," Recall that Rakitskiy returned to Shakhtar in early 2023. After breaking the contract with Zenit, in the spring of 2022, he joined the Pitmen to participate in charity matches in support of Ukraine in the war against Russian invaders. Yaroslav played the first part of the 2022/23 season in the Turkish club Adana Demirspor. This season, Rakitskiy has played in 11 Shakhtar games in all competitions, scoring two goals and providing one assist.