Update at 14:20 GMT on February 14: Ukraine’s broadcaster now says it has received information throwing the authenticity of Alina’s documents into question. Please see our new post here for the latest. Our original post remains below.
After an eventful Vidbir, Alina Pash emerged as Ukraine’s Eurovision 2022 representative. However, her appointment was met with a lot of questions surrounding her 2015 visit to Crimea. On Sunday Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne has published a set of documents from the country’s border control service. They confirm that Alina Pash entered Crimea through a Ukrainian land border in accordance to local rules.
Alina Pash and Crimea: What is happening?
In the weeks before the selection show, commenters on social media wrote that Alina Pash had previously visited Crimea via a flight from Moscow, thus breaking one of the selection’s rules.
This rumour emerged after a 2019 interview Alina had with Kateryna Osadcha’s programme Svitske zhittya. There, the songstress mentioned that she visited in Crimea in 2015. Specifically, she used the word “to fly” when she described her trip to the peninsula.
In an interview to Timur Miroshnychenko last week, Alina stated that she did in fact not fly to into Crimea. Instead, she said that she went there by bus. She noted that the fragment with Kateryna Osadcha was taken out of context. She added that she did not go to Crimea for a performance but for a private affair. Suspilne subsequently received physical proof from Alina that she indeed passed the land border.
Ukrainian border control registered her twice at a land border checkpoint
Suspilne published a set of documents proving that Alina Pash indeed entered Crimea by land border and therefore did not break Ukrainian law or any Vidbir selection rules. On two occassions in August 2015, she was registered to have passed through the Ukrainian state land border checkpoint Chaplynka in the Kherson Oblast of Ukraine.
The document of the Ukrainian border control services reads as follows:
“Within the power granted by the Administration of the State Border Service of Ukraine, based on the results of your request, we inform you that according to the data of the State Border Service, P [censored], A [censored] transited the border of Ukraine in 2015 through the checkpoint Chaplynka.
11 August 2015, citizen P [censored], A [censored] I [censored] carried out an exit from the state border of Ukraine through the checkpoint Chaplynka.
13 August 2015, citizen P [censored], A [censored] I [censored] carried out an entrance on the state border of Ukraine through the checkpoint Chaplynka.”
Dit bericht op Instagram bekijken
Kalush were robbed because the jury wanted a political song to represent Ukraine. There I said it. Also, Tina Karol worked with her on her album!
It was known from the start that Alina was going to win…this is why, if you watch closely…her emotional responses to everything were fake as hell 🙂
I didn’t even know who she was nor knew anything about Ukrainian selection before the show’s Livestream and something seemed really off with her…even my boyfriend noticed
The drama escalates! I really don’t see anything that suspicious with Alina’s win, the documents, well it could take a while and it (I hope) is not true.
Drama and Ukraine, why is it always go together…
i love how the ukranian televison whips out a political song after any major scandal with russia as if anyone voting actually cares lol
Phew! I’m glad she’s able to fly to Italy.
Off Topic
Rosa Linn will represent Armenia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCt9gfNSyg4
Song is really good but I just pray that whole Russia-Ukraine politics with war behing will stop and everyone will stay safe.
Kyiv/Lviv/Odessa….probably Kyiv 2023
Calling it now.
Christer Björkman’s comeback in
Kyiv/Lviv/Odessa….probably Kyiv 2023
Calling it now.
Probably Kyiv again. Fun game to pretend it could be somewhere new but then they realize they wasted too much time with too many scandals so they just pick the easiest way again.
Can’t deal with a Bjorkmann comeback….ESC really needs to distance itself from himself and the other one ….Kirkorov
Yesyesyes!!
Amazing Kalush Orchestra to Italy please! Alina’s song is chaos, the results are weird and she has problems with their law.
Ukraine of course -Maruv
If the person wants to visit Crimea, why they cannot chose the way they want to do that. Ukraine is a criminal state.
You can’t enter Ukrainian territory without passing Ukrainian border checkpoint and Crimea is part of Ukrainian territory.
So she was entering Ukraine from inside Ukraine? Surreal!
This song is about history. History involves politics but it can’t not. All this song means to me is that everyone has a history. Call it political if you want, but all you are saying is Ukraine can’t talk about their history without it being political. That’s not okay.
FYI I’m not from ukraine
Armenians are not allowed to have history, right?
What does Armenia have to do with my comment?
Ukraine proving once again that there are zero politics involved in ESC. (:
Can we please stop all this political nonsense.
No this situation needs our attention and love. This needs to be discussed