Hardly any other country is as successful in the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) as Ukraine: the Eastern European state has taken part 16 times since 2003, Ukraine has won twice since then (2004 and 2016) and twice (2007 and 2008) it came to the second place.

So the expectations are high every year.

This year, the rapper Alina Pash won the national preliminary round Widbir, and only last Saturday.

Peter Philipp Schmitt

Editor in the department "Germany and the World".

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Her self-penned song "Tini Zabutykh Predkiv" ("Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors") is a sort of Romeo and Juliet story, based on a 1964 Ukrainian film.

She also imitates animal sounds, as some indigenous peoples in the region still do today.

Just four days later, on Wednesday evening, the twenty-eight-year-old surprisingly withdrew herself and her post again – via Instagram.

The background is once again the smoldering conflict with Russia, which has repeatedly overshadowed the ESC from a Ukrainian point of view since 2014: Jamala's song "1944", which is about her great-grandparents, who went to Central Asia after Josef Stalin reconquered Crimea, was controversial were deported.

Jamala, who sensationally won the ESC in 2016, also sang in Crimean Tatar.

In 2019, the singer Maruv (Anna Korsun) won the national preliminary round, but was then criticized for her concert appearances in neighboring Russia, whereupon the twenty-seven-year-old decided not to take part in the ESC.

As a result, Ukraine did not take part in the competition for the first time.

"I don't want to be part of a smear campaign"

This year's candidate also feels treated unfairly.

She is said to have traveled to Crimea in 2015, and the public broadcaster UA:PBC wanted to check whether she had valid travel documents.

At first, Alina Pash even reported that she flew to Crimea via Moscow.

Entry into occupied Crimea via Russia is illegal for Ukrainians.

"I don't want to be part of a smear campaign," Pash wrote on Instagram Wednesday night.

It is with a heavy heart that she withdraws her candidacy.

As the border authorities have now announced, the singer actually had no valid entry documents for Crimea.

The broadcaster UA:PBC can now internally select a candidate from the remaining preliminary decision participants.

However, he had already tried that in 2019, but one musician after the other canceled three years ago, so that in the end only the withdrawal from the ESC remained.

So far, 19 of a total of 41 participants at this year's ESC have been confirmed.

All countries must nominate their candidates by mid-March.