- Written by Vitaly Shevchenko and Thomas Mackintosh
- BBC Monitoring
The city that was the home of Ukraine’s Eurovision event was reported to have been bombed by Russian missiles moments before the band took to the stage in Liverpool.
The head of the Ternopil regional state administration, Volodymyr Teresh, confirmed that two people had been infected.
Ternopil Mayor Serhiy Nadal confirmed the warehouse damage.
Ten minutes before he took to the stage at the Liverpool Arena, Tvorchy posted on Instagram citing reports that Ternopil in western Ukraine had been attacked.
After the performance, Tvorchi wrote back on Instagram: “Ternopil is the name of our hometown, which was bombed by Russia while we sang on the Eurovision stage about our steel hearts, our indomitableness and our will.
“This is a message to all the cities of Ukraine that are being bombed every day. Kharkiv, Dnipro, Khmelnitsky, Kiev, Zaporizhia, Uman, Sumy, Poltava, Vennytsia, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, Kherson and all other cities.
“Europe, unite against evil for peace!”
They performed “Heart of Steel” – a song about soldiers who led an ultimately unsuccessful resistance against Russian forces at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol.
Liverpool are hosting the competition on behalf of Ukraine due to the ongoing conflict.
At the end of the show, Tvorchy raised his fist in the air as acts from other countries were seen waving the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine.
The UK’s Ambassador to Ukraine Dame Melinda Symons described Tvorchy’s Eurovision performance as “touching”.
She wrote on Twitter, adding: “A reminder that the reason Ukraine cannot host this event is because Russia continues to invade and the people of Ukraine live in constant danger.”
Russia has not yet issued any official comment.
Since then he has flown to Germany, arriving in Berlin just before 01:00 local time.
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