LIVERPOOL, England — Liverpool cleaned up from the Eurovision Song Contest on Sunday, as Sweden celebrated victory and Ukraine remained defiant after a night of Russian bombardment, including a strike on the hometown of the country’s competitors.
Electronic duo Tvorchi represented Ukraine at the spectacular pan-continental pop competition on Saturday night, coming sixth of the 26 finalists with “Heart of Steel,” an anthem to the country’s resilience inspired by the siege of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.
Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine as the contest was underway in Liverpool, and Ukraine’s military said a barrage of Russian drones and missile strikes left dozens wounded. One strike hit Ternopil, home city of Tvorchi in western Ukraine.
Ternopil was attacked again on Sunday morning, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. Civilian buildings and cars were damaged; there was no immediate information on victims.
“Ternopil is the name of our hometown, which was bombed by Russia while we sang on the Eurovision stage about our steel hearts, indomitability and will,” the duo of Andrii Hutsuliak and Jeffery Kenny posted on Instagram late Saturday.
“This is a message for all cities of Ukraine that are shelled every day. Kharkiv, Dnipro, Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Uman, Sumy, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, Kherson and all others. Europe, unite against evil for the sake of peace! GLORY TO UKRAINE!”
Russia, a longtime Eurovision participant, was kicked out last year over its invasion of Ukraine.
Swedish singer Loreen won the contest with her power ballad “Tattoo,” at a colorful, eclectic music competition clouded for a second year by the war in Europe. Britain hosted Eurovision on behalf of Ukraine, which won last year but…
