Ukraine war newest: Russians pushed again far out of Kharkiv – Metropolis mayor

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

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

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

But this yr’s occasion is political for other causes too. The Kalush Orchestra, the act which can represent Ukraine tonight, was not the country’s unique alternative.

That was Alina Pash, a 29-year-old rapper and former reality show 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, got their likelihood instead.

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

Tonight, when the Kalash Orchestra take to the stage, they will be representing a nation that is increasingly assured in itself.

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

A war predicated on the concept that this country had no nationwide identification, no foundational myths, no national heroes, no will to resist, is what's uniting Ukraine more with each passing day.