He moved up to the first team during the 2009–10 season, making his debut, at the age of 20, in a 6–1 Ukrainian Cup win against Dnister Ovidiopol (now called FC Odesa).

He made his league debut for the club 16 days later, coming as a substitute on 31 August in a 3–1 victory over Zorya Luhansk.

Rakytskiy scored his second goal of the season in a 4–1 group stage win over Partizan Belgrade in the Europa League.

[6] He made a total of 34 appearances in the 2010–11 season, scoring twice as Shakhtar retained the Premier League title.

Shakhtar won the Premier League title for the third year in a row [12] and also retained the Ukrainian Cup in a 2–1 extra time victory over Metalurh Donetsk.

[13] He played in Shakhtar's 2–0 Super Cup victory over Metalurh Donetsk on 10 July, keeping a clean sheet.

[21] On 28 January 2019, he signed a 3.5-year contract with Russian Premier League club FC Zenit Saint Petersburg.

[30][31] On 24 February 2022, Rakitskyi was dropped from Zenit's line-up to play Real Betis in the Europa League knockout round play-offs following a social media post that spoke out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine that started that very day.

[37] Rakitskyi made his debut for the national team on 10 October 2009, at the age of 20, in a 1–0 victory over England in a World Cup qualifier.

He scored his second goal in a 2–1 friendly win over Chile on 7 September 2010 [38] and scored his third goal in another friendly match, a 2–2 draw with Romania which saw Ukraine take victory 4–2 in a penalty shootout and the finals of this tournament came out (Cyprus International Football Tournaments 2011 [39] Since the start of the war in Donbas, Rakitskyi faced repeated questioning in the press about his refusal to sing the Ukrainian national anthem when he played for Ukraine.