![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-3.png\")
MARUV at Vidbir in 2019 | Source: Suspilne<\/p>\nThe Ukrainian broadcaster has reiterated that it will continue to enforce a rule regarding the eligibility of singers to compete in the Ukrainian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest.<\/p>\n
On August 7, Suspilne Ukraine stated that the ban on participation in the National Selection \u2018Vidbir\u2019 for artists who have performed concerts in the Russian Federation after March 15, 2014 or in the Republic of Belarus after February 24, 2022 will remain unchanged.<\/p>\n
This explanation about changes to the rules follows an appeal from Olya Polyakova regarding the rules for conducting the National Selection for the Eurovision Song Contest.<\/p>\n
Olya (Olha) Polyakova is a Ukrainian singer, TV presenter, and comedian. She submitted an application to Vidbir 2026; however, she was rejected due to her performance in Russia in 2015. After that, she went to the Verhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) and delivered a speech demanding discrimination by Suspilne, specifically addressing rule 4.6 of Vidbir regarding performances in Russia and Belarus.<\/p>\n
They adopted this rule in 2019. By the way, I was only there once, and not for a concert, at the beginning of 2015, and I never went there again. I consider this refusal to be a violation of my rights. No Ukrainian law at the time this rule appeared established any liability\u2014neither criminal nor administrative\u2014for such performances.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Olya Polyakova, in her Verhovna Rada speech.<\/p>\n
About the Rule<\/p>\n
Suspilne has stated it will not make any changes to the rules, explaining that according to the results of a survey conducted in November 2025 by the research agency \u201cInfo Sapiens\u201d, 56% of Ukrainians responded that artists who continued to perform in the Russian Federation between 2014 and 2022 should not have the right to participate in the National Selection for Eurovision.<\/p>\n
The rule was implemented in 2019, after MARUV won Vidbir with \u2018Siren Song\u2019. However, she refused to sign the contract, which required her to delay all upcoming performances in Russia to represent Ukraine. <\/p>\n
Sources: Suspilne<\/a> | ua.news<\/a><\/p>\n Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest+<\/p>\n Ukraine first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2003, when Oleksandr Ponomariov performed \u201cHasta la vista\u201d. The following year, Ruslana brought the country their first win with the song \u201cWild Dances\u201d. It was a feat that would be replicated in 2016 by Jamala with her song \u201c1944\u201d, which scored 534 points to take victory in Stockholm. Kalush Orchestra gave Ukraine their third victory in 2022 with \u201cStefania\u201d. Ukraine is the only country with a 100% semi-final qualification record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ukrainian broadcaster has reiterated that it will continue to enforce a rule regarding the eligibility of singers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2198,3613],"class_list":["post-25660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-headline","tag-vidbir"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}