The situation between Russia and Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest this year seems to have reached an impasse.
Julia Samoylova has been entering Crimea but not via Ukraine, which is deemed illegal entrance by Ukraine. Therefor she has been placed on the blacklist, meaning she cannot enter Ukraine and will not be able to perform her song on stage in Kyiv.
The EBU have been trying to solve the problem by offering Julia to perform her song via satellite but this solution was not accepted by the Russian broadcaster who stated they didn’t want the EBU to touch their own core values: the artists have to be physically present on stage and perform their song live.
In an interview to Swiss tabloid SonntagsBlick the, Swiss as well, general director of the European Broadcasting Union Ingrid Deltenre has spoken out about the situation. She is in talks with both Ukrainian prime minister Volodymyr Groysman and the president of Ukraine Petro Porosjenko to find a solution.
She expresses her sadness stating:
I deeply regret that the ESC is being used for political power games. The Eurovision Song Contest should make millions of people happy and bring them together, it shouldn’t be used to pit them against eachother.
She adds that, has a solution not been found in the course of next week, Ukraine will be facing sanctions: a temporary ban from the Eurovision Song Contest.