The owner of FC Shakhtar Donetsk has stated that six of his club's players will not return to Ukraine for the next season as a means of protesting the ongoing conflict in the region, which surrounds the club's hometown.

According to reports, the players who are refusing to return are Brazilians Douglas Costa, Fred and Dentinho; Alex Teixiera and Ismaily; and Facundo Ferreyra, the Argentinian striker. All six did not return home with the rest of the club following their friendly match against Lyon this past Saturday. 

The Guardian reports that the club's website has posted a message from club owner Rinat Akhmetov, which warns those six players if they do not return soon that "in the first instance they will suffer."

Akhmetov is threatening that the players' refusal to return home could, through clauses in their contracts, require them each to pay FC Shakhtar "tens of millions of euros." 

"I don't rule out that these players will return to the team quickly, and some of them tomorrow," states Akhmetov.

"Players have contracts that they have to abide by. If they do not come, I think, they will be the first to suffer. Each of them has a minimum release clause, which is tens of millions of euros. If someone wants to reduce this amount by a million, then such a decision is our right. There won't be a clearance sale."

"Hopefully, the mind and heart will prevail over misunderstanding, and the players will not follow temptation and fear. Especially since there is nothing to fear. We are ready to provide security. We will not take risks and in any case we won't bring players to dangerous places."

The club's coach, Mircea Lucescu is pointing the finger at the agent Kia Joorabchian, who Lucescu claims has convinced the six players to refuse to return home.

"It's their agent's work," said Lucescu. "A few hours before the kickoff of the match against Lyonnais, Kia showed up. And after the game, at two in the morning, he took our players away. The very talented ones: Teixeira, Douglas, Fred. The rest are not so important." 

Currently, the Ukrainian military is engaged in a campaign to regain control of the town of Donetsk, which is in the eastern part of Ukraine and an area currently under the control of pro-Russian rebels.

Further exacerbating matters is the fact that Donetsk is also the region where the downed Malaysian Flight 17 also crashed. 

According to the Guardian, Manchester United has reportedly approached one of the six AWOL players, Douglas Costa.

Since 2010, Costa has scored 33 goals for FC Shakhtar in 170 games since 2010.

Former FC Shakhtar star Fernandinho left Shakhtar last summer to play for Manchester City.