It has been a long time coming, but since yesterday the war between Russia and Ukraine has started. Russia attacked Ukranian territories in the early morning of February 24th 2022. Therefore, Ukraine is demanding the expulsion of Russia from the EBU, with the endgame in mind that Russia cannot compete during the Eurovision Song Contest of 2022.
Ukrainian statement to the European Broadcasting Union
Ukraine has issued a statement to the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) to demand Russia’s immediate ban from this international organization. The demand that came from the Public Broadcaster of Ukraine (UA:PBC) also refers to the Eurovision Song Contest of 2022, where the war Russia has started against Ukraine, also violates paragraph (ii) of Section 2.7 of Part 1, Part 1 of Part 1 of the PEC-2022 Rules on EMC values.
The statement of Ukraine is as follows:
The activities of the All-Russian State Television and Broadcasting Company, as well as the Russian broadcaster Channel One, contradict the very idea of public broadcasting and provide information support for the Kremlin’s illegal activities that threaten peace in Europe and the world.
In addition, we would like to note that the Eurovision Song Contest was created after World War II to unite Europe. Given this, Russia’s participation as an aggressor and violator of international law in this year’s Eurovision undermines the very idea of the competition.
Russia’s exclusion from this large-scale musical event will be a powerful response by the international public broadcasting community to the Russian Federation’s unacceptable aggressive and illegal actions and support for the hostile policy of aggression by the country’s state broadcasters.”
The spread of untrue claims
Ukraine also mentions that since 2014, Russian TV stations have been mouthpieces of the Kremlin and therefore are a propaganda tool of the Russian government. Supposedly Russian TV stations spread disinformation, violate journalistic standards, and spread hate speech.
The activities of the All-Russian State Television and Broadcasting Company, as well as the Russian broadcaster Channel One, contradict the very idea of public broadcasting and provide information support for the Kremlin’s illegal activities that threaten peace in Europe and the world.
The link to the full statement issued by the Ukrainian public broadcaster is as follows: Read it here.
Tension during the Eurovision Song Contest
The latest chapter of the seemingly annual Eurovision war between Ukraine and Russia was recently experienced when the winner of the Ukrainian pre-selection, Alina Pash, decided to not represent Ukraine this year at Eurovision, all because of a trip to Crimea, the epicenter of the controversy, which was not legal according to Ukrainian law.
These events are not entirely new; already in 2019, when the Ukrainian winner of Vidbir, “Maruv”, also experienced backlash from the tension between Russia and Ukraine. There was controversy from the start, when Ukraninian and former Eurovision winner, Jamala, asked Maruv the question if Crimea was either from Ukraine or Russia, instead of judging the performance and song of the singer. This story ended with Maruv’s disqualification supposedly because of internal “problems”, even after Maruv agreed on not performing in Russia and to pay for her Eurovision participation with her own money, she was not considered to be a contestant anymore.
The contest of 2017
But the total breaking point came in 2017, when Ukraine was the host of that year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Ukraine has a rule applicable throughout the country, which is the following: “Any Russian who visited Crimea after 2014, the year Russia seized the peninsula, is banned from entering Ukraine for three years.” Not shying away from any type of controversy, Russia chose Yulia Savicheva to represent the country, even knowing that she had been performing a concert tour in Crimea territory. The EBU tried to mediate, but in the end Russia had to withdraw from competing during the contest of 2017.
Nowadays
At the moment all these events also had their repercussions on the pay-out of betting odds; Ukraine keeps improving its odds and is in third position. Russia, on the other hand, is down to twentieth place.
Hitler neither was not aware of the damage he did to Londen till the allies targeted Berlin. If I was Ukraine I would surely try to hit Moscow and destroy the Douma. I would drop every Ukrainian soldier inside Russia to fight instead of trying to defend Kyiv.