Ukraine’s SBU state security service on March 22 banned Yulia Samoylova, Russian’s entry to 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, from entering Ukraine for three years because she visited the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory of Crimea illegally in June 2015.
“Ukraine’s Security Service has banned Russian national Yulia Samoylova from entering Ukraine for three years,” SBU spokesperson Olena Hytlianska said in a statement posted on Facebook.
“The decision was taken due to information that she had violated Ukrainian law.”
Russia’s First Channel chose in March Samoylova, 27, as a Russian participant for Eurovision that is to be held in Kyiv in May. She was planning to perform with the song “Flame Is Burning.”
Russia, in breach of international law, annexed Crimea in March 2014, after invading the Ukrainian territory with troops in unmarked uniforms who pretended to be from local “defense militias.”
The Kremlin then organized a sham referendum and claimed the peninsula was now part of the Russian Federation. Only a motley collection of rogue states and territories have recognized the illegal annexation, however.
In Ukraine it is illegal to enter Crimea without passing through Ukrainian-controlled territory. The SBU has banned several persons from traveling to Ukraine for violating this law.
The Kremlin earlier announced that Russia would not replace Samoylova with any other performer.
“I don’t know the decision of our organizers, but as far as I understand there is no such option as a replacement,” Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin, said on March 20.
Samoylova has been disabled since childhood and was diagnosed with type-one spinal muscular atrophy at the age of 13. She uses a wheelchair to get around.
She participated in the opening ceremony of the winter Paralympics in Sochi in 2014.
On June 27, 2015, Samoylova sang in the occupied Crimean city of Kerch for sports festival along with several other Russian pop singers.
In an interview with Meduza, an independent Russian-language website, Samoylova said she saw no problem in visiting Crimea in breach of Ukrainian law.
“I performed in Kerch just like in any other city, I sang in many places,” she said. “It was an ordinary concert, everything was ok; I don’t know why it insulted everyone so much.”
