We’ll host Eurovision says defiant Zelensky
DEFIANT Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to one day host the Eurovision Song Contest in the embattled city of Mariupol, which is almost entirely in Russian hands aside from a stalwart group of a few hundred Ukrainian fighters who continue to hold out in a steel factory.
Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra won the contest with its song Stefania, which has become a popular anthem among Ukrainians during the war and its victory was a morale booster.
“Our courage impresses the world, our music conquers Europe,” Mr Zelensky said on Facebook. “Next year, Ukraine will host Eurovision.”
The band made an impassioned plea during the show to help the fighters still in the Azovstal steel plant in the port city, and Mr Zelensky said “one day” the contest will be held “in a Ukrainian Mariupol”.
Hours after their victory the band released a new music video of its winning hit featuring scenes of war-ravaged Ukraine and women in combat gear.
Band members must return to Ukraine today (Monday) after being given special permission to leave the country to attend the competition.
Mr Zelensky’s optimistic words come as Russian troops are retreating from Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city, after bombarding it for weeks and Moscow’s forces continue to engage in a grinding battle for the country’s eastern industrial heartland.
Ukraine’s military said the Russian forces are now pulling back from the north-eastern city to focus on guarding supply routes, while launching mortar, artillery and air strikes in the eastern region of Donetsk in an attempt to “deplete Ukrainian forces and destroy fortifications”.
Defence minister Oleksii Reznikov said Ukraine is “entering a new - long-term phase of the war”.
Russian forces control a horseshoeshaped swath of territory in the Ukrainian areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, which make up the eastern Donbas region, along the border of the industrial region where Ukraine has battled Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.
In the southern Donbas, the Azov Sea port of Mariupol is now largely in Russian control, except for the few hundred troops left in the factory.