Ukraine's Eurovision story has been pretty impressive. In 9 of their 15 appearances since 2003 they've been placed in the Top 10, 7 of which were Top 6 and they've been runners up twice and won it twice.
After not participating in 2015 on the grounds that the country needed to spend all its money on defence at the height of problems with Russia they were welcomed back in a grand way, winning in 2016 - and with a distinctly national song from Jamala which was pretty close to being banned for being too political!
Winning that year was particularly pleasing for them as the favourite had been Russia's Sergey Lazarev, who finished 3rd. Ukraine's sexy Maruv was expected to be one of the favourites this year. As it happens, Sergey is returning this year as Russia's entry and, even though we don't yet know the song, he's now favourite to win instead!
So Ukraine mat well have landed a potential victory to Russia as a result of this mess, which seems to have originated because Ukraine was not happy about artists performing in Russia. Maruv refused to agree her contract in this respect and the artists who were also in the running and came 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the national competition have also refused.
The European Broadcasting Union may now impose a fine and, indeed, a ban on Ukraine for future participation.
Quite a surprise. It could now be quite a boring year, judging by the entries released so far.
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