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The scene of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, which began with the occupation of Crimea and its de facto integration into Russia in 2014, but also with the separatist uprisings in eastern Ukraine with the support of the Kremlin, has now reached Junior Eurovision.

Although a favorite, was ruled out

Most of you will probably remember the Ukrainian national selection for Eurovision 2019 and the political dimensions that took place, with the final exclusion of Maruv. Now something similar happened in the pre-selection phase of the Ukrainian participation in Junior Eurovision 2020.

But let’s look at everything that happened from the beginning. Maksym Tkachuk was among the candidates to represent Ukraine in Junior Eurovision 2020. He applied with a performance of a Ukrainian rendition of the 1960s Giamaica song that was recorded. by a number of Italian artists.

Maksym previously participated in a festival called “Stars of the Albion”. His participation in this festival was the one that caused his exclusion from the national final for Junior Eurovision 2020. The reason for his exclusion was that he violated the rules of participation, and while the video with which he declared his participation had the most likes from their co-candidates, 12,000 before being removed from the official national default YouTube account.

The reasons for Maksym’s exclusion

The application form states that: the participant guarantees that he has not performed concert activities, performances, participation in public and / or private events organized by government agencies, institutions, economic entities, etc. of the country of the attacker or in the territory of the attacking country, in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and / or in the occupied territory of Ukraine after 15.03.2014 and does not plan, will not announce the relevant appearances both during the period before and during national selection, and in the period after the Selection until the last date of the International Competition.

As the “Stars of the Albion” competition held from 28.02.2020 to 01.03.2020 was co-organized by the office of the “Russian Parliament / Russian Delegation in London” shows that this competition is subject to the executive power of the Russian Federation.

Zurab Alasania, a former managing director of Ukraine’s national broadcaster, also wrote about the case on Facebook, saying that Maksym’s legal guardian, his grandmother, had withheld the young artist’s involvement in the application forms. , at the “Stars of the Albion” festival. In addition, he states that the Russian Foreign Ministry is participating in the organization of the festival in question and therefore Maksym’s participation in the Ukrainian national final was no longer possible, after the announcement of the above. Mr Alasania also denounced the Russian media ‘s criticism of the decision, saying the rules were known and applied to all, and that he would not allow Ukrainian public television to launch a new case similar to the one. of Maruv in 2019, ending the non-participation of the country in the competition.

Maksym’s answer

Maksym’s grandmother, who is also his legal guardian as he is an orphan, appeared disappointed saying that the Ukrainian television did not even bother to inform her by phone and everything was informed by the media. She believes that the reason for her grandson’s exclusion was that in “Stars of the Albion”, she sang “Smuglyanka”, a patriotic song of the Soviet era, the time when Russia and Ukraine were in the same state.

Opposition party Svoboda, meanwhile, has blamed Moscow for trying to use a 12-year-old orphan boy to propagandize pro-Russian positions in Ukraine as Russia seeks to oust Maksym. occupies Crimea and the eastern part of the country. Moreover, they do not consider that the choice of Maksym’s song in “Stars of the Albion” was accidental…

Is the reaction of the Ukrainians fair?

Here we will briefly state our point of view, because unfortunately the issue is very delicate and any attitude in favor of either side must be done very carefully, always respecting international law.

On the one hand, the cancellation of Maksym is completely legal and is based on the rules of the competition that were published from the beginning and were known to all participants. The fact that his legal guardian concealed Maksym’s participation in the festival shows that she knew it was a Russian-sponsored music competition, as she knew there would be reactions if her grandson’s participation was learned at this festival. The choice of the song, which also provoked reactions, was obviously not accidental, but it is something we will not comment on, as we do not know exactly what this song means for Ukraine.

The representative of Ukraine in the Junior Eurovision 2020 will be announced on September 12th.