Eurovision fines Ukrainian team for wearing Free Azovstal Defenders T-shirts – photo, video

The organisers of Eurovision 2024 have fined the Ukrainian delegation for wearing Free Azovstal Defenders T-shirts during the broadcast of the show.

Source: alyona alyona on Instagram

Details: alyona alyona said that it was a very risky and difficult endeavour to appear in Free Azovstal Defenders T-shirts. Any inscriptions and brands were prohibited, the security guards checked all the clothes and, if there was an inscription on them, asked that it be removed or covered with black tape.

Photo: alyona alyona on Instagram

Quote: "Before entering the hall, our team put on T-shirts under their other T-shirts and sweatshirts and were able to go into the green room with them.

We knew that when they were showing replays of all the artists' performances, they would also show the delegation itself. So when the camera came up to us, our team quickly took off [the outer layer] and showed our statement to the whole world. We took a big risk, but it worked out. We got off with just a fine. I am incredibly glad that we managed to remind the world about our prisoners of war."

Background:

• Before the Eurovision Song Contest final, Poles on social media were outraged by a sweatshirt worn by one of Ukraine's Eurovision representatives, Jerry Heil, with the inscription Banderaciaga. She is accused of supporting the "cult of Stepan Bandera". [Stepan Bandera was involved in the Ukrainian nationalist movement in the 1930s, later leading its radical wing, and is widely regarded as a "Nazi leader" in Russia - ed.]

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