Following the EBU’s statement regarding the Eurovision 2023 hosting, the Ukrainian national broadcaster, UA:PBC has released a statement regarding this matter.

Both Ukraine and the Ukrainian national broadcaster, UA:PBC, seem quite dissapointed that the EBU has ruled out Ukraine hosting the forthcoming 2023 Eurovision Song Contest due to security and safety reasons. UA:PBC has appealed to the EBU in order to hold further talks on the matter.

A total of three cities were proposed to host the event in Ukraine next year: Kyiv, Lviv and Zakarpattia.

UA: PBC has released the following statement today:

On June 17, the European Broadcasting Union denied Ukraine the right to host Eurovision-2023 after analyzing the security situation as of June 2022. The EBU is starting negotiations with the British public broadcaster BBC on the possibility of holding Eurovision 2023 in the UK.

“We are disappointed with this decision of the EBU. During this month, a large number of people in Ukraine have thrown all their efforts to fulfill the conditions for holding Eurovision in our country. Security is, of course, our first priority. The team of UA: PBC, state and local authorities did a thorough job and offered different options. It is a pity to see such an unappealable statement, ​​therefore, we ask our partners to hold further negotiations”, Mykola Chernotytskyi, Head of the Managing Board of UA: PBC, said.

On 14 June, the Official Kick-off Meeting of the organizers from Ukraine with the Reference Group, partners of the Eurovision Song Contest and the core team of EBU took place. At this meeting the contest representatives and the EBU considered the presentation of guarantees and preparatory measures, in particular the security questionnaire, potential locations for the contest hosting prepared by the team of UA: PBC together with the government of Ukraine.

All security and safety related measures have to be prepared and implemented in close cooperation with national authorities. Therefore, UA: PBC held consultations with the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (National Police, State Emergency Service, National Guard) and the Ministry of Defense 

The working group of UA: PBC together with state and local authorities proposed several options for hosting the event in three different regions of Ukraine: in Lviv, in Zakarpattia (on the border with Hungary and Slovakia) and in Kyiv.

As a reminder, after the victory of Kalush Orchestra at Eurovision 2022 in Turin, Ukraine gained the right to host the Song Contest next year. UA: PBC as a member of the European Broadcasting Union ensures the selection and participation of a representative of Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest, is an official broadcaster of the contest, and organizes the contest the following year in case of Ukraine’s victory.

Kalush Orchestra and Ukraine won the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest in Turin with their entry ‘Stefania‘.

Source: UA:PBC