When Ukrainians rebelled earlier this year against Yanukovych’s plans to seek closer ties with Russia, Akhmetov initially stayed silent. In May, months after Yanukovych had fled the country, he came out in favor of the new Kiev government, but according to Lutsevych, the delay led many in Kiev to question his allegiances.

For now, his soccer team plays on. The Donetsk derby in Kiev ended in a rout, with Shakhtar beating Olimpik, 5-0, in a tiny stadium before a few hundred fans. After the final whistle, Srna and a handful of players ran to salute their fans. They were quickly mobbed by the Ultras, shaking hands, exchanging hugs and posing for photos.

“This was the best day of the season!” said one fan, a 21-year-old finance student named Vladyslav, who declined to give his last name. He beamed as he left the stadium. “I don’t know how I’ll get home,” he said. “Maybe I’ll hitch a ride on a tank.”

No one knows when top-division soccer will return to eastern Ukraine.

“Only God knows how long it will take Donetsk to recover from this hell, both mentally and materially,” said Alex Sereda, a Ukrainian soccer journalist based in the port city of Mariupol. The team there has also been exiled to Kiev. “It’s impossible to believe that two years ago this city hosted Euro 2012, with thousands of people walking around in Donetsk wearing Ukraine shirts.”

In the weeks after the Donetsk derby on Aug. 15, the Donbass Arena was hit by shelling. The club’s offices were briefly overrun by unidentified armed men. But Shakhtar continues to win. It once again leads the Ukrainian league, having won every one of its relocated games this season.

The Shakhtar Ultras continue to travel hundreds of miles every week — on Saturday they were in Odessa for a 2-0 victory over Chornomorets — even if their numbers apparently have been reduced. The day after the Shakhtar-Olimpik game, the Shakhtar Ultras’ Twitter account announced that a group of its members had stayed in Kiev and joined the Azov Battalion, a volunteer militia fighting in the east.

Despite his best intentions, Vladyslav said, he was not among them.

“I wanted to go to the military unit,” he said. “But my parents would not let me.”