Russian participant in Eurovision Song Contest denied entry to Ukraine

Ukrainian National Security Service has issued a 3-year travel ban on Yulia Samoylova, a Russian artist chosen for the Eurovision song contest, that will held in Kyiv in May.

The grounds for making the aforesaid decision was that Samoylova illegally visited Russia’s annexed Crimea and held a concert there, thus violating Ukrainian legislation, under which Crimea is regarded as a temporarily occupied territory.

Wheelchair-bound Yulia Samoylova has become known to a broader public after her appearance in Alla Pugacheva’s TV-project ‘Star Factory’ a few years ago. She was nominated for the Eurovision Song Contest by the Russian 1^st TV Channel, Eurovision’s official partner.

As a reminder, 2017 Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Kyiv, because the previous contest winner was the Ukrainian singer, Jamala with the song ‘1944’, dedicated to deportation of the Crimean Tatars from Crimea in 1944.