KIEV: FC Shakhtar’s train­ing camp in Donetsk has been seriously damaged by overnight shelling, the Ukrainian club said on Saturday.

“Two shells hit directly into the main building destroying the upper level where the main squad of the team used to live,” the club said in a statement.

“The leisure zone and the exercise room were completely destroyed. Fire-briga­des have been working hard all night to beat a huge fire. They managed to localise it but some parts are still burning.”

Two days ago, the camp was hit by four shells causing minor damages as they struck the training ground while Shakhtar’s Donbass Arena, which hosted a semi-final at the Euro 2012 championship, had also been damaged by shelling.

Donetsk, a major industrial city, has become a stronghold of pro-Russian separatists who are fighting army forces controlled by the government.

Shakhtar moved their head­quarters from the strife-torn city of Donetsk to Kiev, with home games played in Lviv to escape from the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Published in Dawn, August 31th, 2014