You're reading: Euro 2012 blog: Donetsk survival T-shirt proves hit

Reports suggest foreign fans have been thin on the ground in Donetsk, but for those that did make it, there’s a perfect souvenir – a T-shirt declaring “Now I fear nothing. I’ve been to Donetsk.”

Donetsk, a gritty industrial city in eastern Ukraine, is hosting five games at Euro 2012, including a semifinal.

The T-shirts are available for Hr 170 at the only souvenir stall at the city’s campsite for foreign fans.

In addition to the inscription there is a picture of a red five-cornered diamond, which serves as a symbol for the city of coal and steel.

Diana Berg, the T-shirt’s designer, is selling other T-shirts for fans to commemorate their time in Ukraine.

One declares that its owner has had his “best adventure in 2012” because he ”travelled to Ukraine, lived in a tent for weeks, made new great friends, drank plenty of beer, met many hot girls, hung out all night.”

Donetsk is widely viewed as a tough city, renowned for the violence it endured in in the 1990s when business groups battled for control of assets after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Now the city authorities are making efforts to gain a new image for Donetsk.

Berg said she wanted to prove everything is all right in Donetsk now. “Fans laugh when they see my T-shirts,” the designer said. “They learn by having come to Donetsk where nothing has happened to them.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Denis Rafalsky can be reached at [email protected].