It’s been an interesting week in the world of Eurovision involving Ukraine. After winning Vidbir 2022 on Saturday, Alina Pash announced on Instagram that she was withdrawing from Eurovision. This came after her win, once rumors started to circulate that she had entered Crimea illegally through Russia. Then, Yaroslav Lodygin (chairman of the organizing committee of Vidbir) announced that he is ready to resign his position in an attempt to preseve the intergreity of the competition.

Just 1 point behind Alina Pash at Vidbir was the band Kalush Orchestra. Given the disorganized way the voting was announced during the live show, Kalush Orchestra had claimed that the voting was rigged and were ready to challenge that assertion in court. However, with Alina not headed to Turin, there is a possibility that they may get their chance to go after all.

The next meeting of the Organizing Committee for Ukraine’s participation in Eurovision will decide who will ultimately fly to Turin. According to Dmytro Khorkin, a member of the Eurovision Organizing Committee, as a rule, one of the finalists of Vidbir will be chosen for the trip to Eurovision.

Commenting on the situation about the withdrawal of Alina Pash, Khorkin explained that more details will be known after the committee meeting. According to him, the Organizing Committee received a response from the State Border Guard Service that they did not issue a certificate to Alina Pash, which means that the certificate received earlier was a fake.

Khorkin later asked Alina if she would write a statement on the matter, and according to him, she replied, “No … I don’t want to break with the competition as much as I want to break with this dirt.”

Khorkin’s objective is not to find a suitable replacement so that Ukraine be represented in the European Song Contest. When a similar incident arose after Vidbir in 2019, Ukraine was forced to withdrawal from Eurovision, and did not compete in after MARUV was denied her ticket to Tel Aviv.

When asked if it may be possible that Ukraine does not compete in Turin at all, Khorkin commented that Ukraine has already begun to participate. “We still want to send a representative or a band,” he explained.

What do you think of the mess in Ukraine? Who should go to Eurovision? Should Ukraine withdraw and sort this out for next year? Let us know in the comments or on our socials @escbubble !