- By Vitaly Shevchenko and Thomas Mackintosh
- BBC surveillance
May 13, 2023 at 10:57 p.m. BST
Updated 29 minutes ago
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During her participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, Tvorchi held up a sign with her hometown’s name on it
The hometown of Ukraine’s Eurovision Song Contest was reportedly hit by Russian missiles just before the band took the stage in Liverpool.
The head of the Ternopil regional state administration, Volodymyr Trush, confirmed that two people were injured.
Ternopil Mayor Serhiy Nadal confirmed that warehouses were damaged.
Ten minutes before taking the stage at Liverpool Arena, Tvorchi posted reports of an attack on Ternopil in western Ukraine on Instagram.
After his performance, Tvorchi wrote again on Instagram: “Ternopil is the name of our hometown that was bombed by Russia while we sang on the Eurovision stage about our hearts of steel, our inflexibility and our will.”
“This is a message to all cities of Ukraine that are under shelling every day: Kharkiv, Dnipro, Khmelnytskyi, Kiev, Zaporizhia, Uman, Sumy, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Odessa, Mykolayiv, Chernihiv, Kherson and all others.”
“Europe, unite against evil for peace!”
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Tvorchi posted on Instagram that Russia is bombing his hometown of Ternopil
They performed “Heart of Steel” – a song about troops leading an ultimately unsuccessful resistance to Russian forces at the Azovstal Plant in Mariupol.
Due to the ongoing conflict, Liverpool are hosting the competition on behalf of Ukraine.
At the end of their performance, Tvorchi held their fists in the air while performances from other nations were also seen waving the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine.
Image source: Getty Images
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Tvorchi consists of producer Andrii Hutsuliak and Nigerian raised singer Jeffery Kenny
British Ambassador to Ukraine Dame Melinda Simmons described Tvorchi’s performance at the Eurovision Song Contest as “poignant”.
She wrote on Twitter, adding: “Reminder that Ukraine could not host this event because Russia continues to invade and the people of Ukraine continue to live in danger.”
Russia has not yet made any official comment.
He has since flown to Germany, arriving in Berlin just before 01:00 local time.