Ukraine battle latest: Russians pushed back far out of Kharkiv – Metropolis mayor

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

This yr's Eurovision is surely probably the most political in a very long time.

Russia has been banned. Ukraine is the runaway favorite to win, buoyed by a normal sense of solidarity round the rest of the continent.

However this 12 months’s occasion is political for different causes too. The Kalush Orchestra, the act which will represent Ukraine tonight, was not the nation’s authentic selection.

That was Alina Pash, a 29-year-old rapper and former reality present contestant.

However when it was alleged she had visited occupied Crimea, she was dropped amid public outcry.

Kalush Orchestra, a folk rap group from Western Ukraine, acquired their probability as a substitute.

Dressed in traditional outfits and drawing on the country’s lengthy however repressed musical traditions, they are an implicit rebuke to the suggestion, oft repeated by Vladimir Putin, that Ukraine just isn't an actual country - however merely a "little Russia", a region that wants reintegration.

Tonight, when the Kalash Orchestra take to the stage, they are going to be representing a nation that's increasingly confident in itself.

And therein lies the irony, some would say strategic blunder, on the heart of president Putin’s invasion.

A battle predicated on the idea that this nation had no national identification, no foundational myths, no nationwide heroes, no will to resist, is what's uniting Ukraine more with every passing day.