Latest news with #Myrnograd
The Independent
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Home of Ukraine Eurovision contestant destroyed by Russian shelling
Russian shelling has destroyed the home of a teenage Ukrainian Eurovision contestant a week before the competition begins. Khrystyna Starykova, 19, posted photos and video on social media detailing her damaged apartment block in the city of Myrnograd of eastern Ukraine 's Donetsk region. The teenager is currently in Switzerland rehearsing for her performance with the band Ziferblat. Ms Starykova is a backing singer, affectionately known as "bird girl" as she handles the song's high notes. Ms Starykova posted two photos of her apartment block shrouded in smoke and still partly on fire, alongside the captions 'Home' with a broken heart emoji and 'I dreamed so much of returning home'. She added that she was determined to still perform at Eurovision next week, in Basel, 'for the sake of our country'. 'I want to show what a strong people we are,' she wrote. In an interview with Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne, Ms Starykova added that she had believed her home could be destroyed at any moment. Her grandmother lost her home just four months ago and the roof of her aunt's house was also destroyed. Ms Starykova's home is less than five miles from the frontline, next door to the city of Pokrovsk, a key aim of the Russian advance in Donetsk over the past year. The teenager lived through fierce battles between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army from 2014 before the outbreak of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The vast majority of Myrnograd's pre-war population of 46,000 have fled the city, which has been repeatedly hit by Russian shelling. On Tuesday morning, Ms Starykova shared additional footage of the city's bomb-damaged streets. 'I always went home from vocal lessons this way, she wrote in the caption. 'It was my favourite way home.' Ukraine's Ziferblat will be singing Bird of Pray at this years Eurovision, a song telling the story of Ukrainians separated from their loved ones by the war. "It's about our problems we go through, the tragedy for the last three years," singer Valentyn Leshchynskyi told Eurovision fansite Wiwibloggs. "To be honest, the last eleven years."
BBC News
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Eurovision 2025: Ukrainian singer's home destroyed as she rehearses
Mark Savage Music Correspondent Khrystyna Starykova Khrystyna Starykova is a backing vocalist for Ukraine's Eurovision act Ziferblat The home of Ukrainian Eurovision contestant Khrystyna Starykova has been destroyed by Russian shelling in the city of Myrnograd. The 19-year-old is currently in Switzerland rehearsing for her performance with the band Ziferblat, but posted photos of her damaged apartment block in the Sviltly neighbourhood. "Home. And I dreamed so much of returning home," she captioned the post, which showed the building shrouded in smoke, with its windows blown out and several balconies collapsed. "Fortunately, all my relatives and friends are alive and well," she said, and vowed to perform at Eurovision next week "for the sake of our country". "[I want] to show what a strong people we are." Khrystyna Starykova The singer posted side-by-side photos of her apartment block as it used to be, and after it was bombed earlier this week. In an interview with Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne, Starykova said she had almost anticipated the destruction of her home. "Four months ago, my grandmother lost her home - it was just such a big hole," she said. "Then my aunt lost the roof over her head. "I understood that maybe I could be the next one and, unfortunately, it happened. It's very terrible news. I had really hoped to go back." In a new Instagram post on Tuesday morning, she shared further footage of the bomb-damaged streets of Myrnograd. "I always went home from vocal lessons this way," she wrote in the caption. "It was my favourite way home." Suspilne Ukraine's song Bird Of Pray is predicted to finish in the top 10 of this year's Eurovision, in Switzerland next week
