Ukrainian defender Yaroslav Rakitskiy joined Shakhtar Donetsk and will take part in charity fights in support of Ukraine during the war with Russia.

This is reported by the official website of the Donetsk club.

On Tuesday, April 12, Rakitskiy arrived at the Pitmen's location at the training base of the Turkish national team and together with the team will prepare for the upcoming matches.

Rakitskiy is one of Shakhtar's most famous trainees, he played more than 300 matches for the Orange-and-Blacks.

In January 2019, after 10 years of playing for the Pitmen's first team, Yaroslav moved to Zenit St. Petersburg, which is why he stopped being called up to the Ukrainian national team.

After the start of a full-scale invasion of Russian troops in Ukraine, Yaroslav terminated the contract with Zenit, and also called on the Russians to stop the war that their state launched against Ukraine.

Earlier it was reported that the former football player and coach of Shakhtar Donetsk died.