Ukraine did turn to the EBU with a request to allow Zelenskyʼs speech at Eurovision. But it was Tkachenko, not OP

The Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko said that it was he who appealed to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) with a request to allow President Volodymyr Zelenskyʼs speech on Eurovision.

"I think there was some embarrassment, because I approached the EBU with this proposal a week before the competition, not the Presidential Office (OP). For some reason, they sent me an official letter that it was impossible for political reasons, but on the eve of Eurovision, articles appeared in the press," he noted.

According to him, on the eve of Eurovision, EBU representatives explained the refusal by "human error".

• On May 12, The Times reported that the organizers of Eurovision 2023 allegedly responded by refusing Zelenskyʼs offer to make a video speech in the final of the song contest. However, the Presidentʼs Office stated that they had not approached the organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest with such a proposal.