06-05-2025
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
