After four out of six finalists of Vidbir 2019 said “No” to the public broadcaster, UA:PBC announced that they are officially withdrawing from the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest, which now means that 41 countries are going to compete in Tel Aviv!

UA:PBC stated the following:

… The winner of the national selection for this year’s Eurovision was the singer MARUV, which the Public Broadcaster, as it does this annually, offered to conclude an agreement to represent Ukraine at the song contest. However, after negotiations, MARUV refused to sign the agreement.

Therefore, in the situation of non-signing of the agreement on participation in the Eurovision with the winner of the TV and radio company turns to the finalists who took the second and third place by the results of the National Selection. Freedom Jazz and Kazka also refused to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest-2019.

…

The song contest is an opportunity for every country to declare itself in the international arena, and for each performer to act as the ambassador of their country and win supporters around the world.
But the National Selection-2019 revealed and attracted the attention of our society to the systemic problem of the music industry in Ukraine: the connections of artists from the show business in the territory of the aggressor state, which are still very close at the 5th year of the military conflict. For a part of society, this fact is acceptable, in the other part it causes indignation and rejection.

The laws of Ukraine do not propose any restrictions on the work of performers and artists on the territory of the Russian Federation despite the large public request to resolve this situation.

In the current situation, following the Law on Public Broadcasting, as well as in conditions of excessive politicization of the national selection process, the Public Broadcasting Company decided to refuse to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019.

Ukraine was set to compete in the second part of the first semi final in Tel Aviv.