Zurab Alasania — the CEO of the Ukrainian national broadcaster — has thrown a spanner in Ukraine’s potential participation next year’s Eurovision song contest.

As TV KP reports, Alasania has announced that if Russia wins this year’s edition, Ukraine will not be present at Eurovision 2017. Writing on his personal Facebook page he said:

“It is true that an alternative is forced to think. If the winner is a man named Lazarev — I think in the next year UA: Purshia will again refuse to participate in the competition”

One would assume that the “man named Lazarev” is Russia’s Sergey Lazarev – and “winning” referring to tomorrow night’s Eurovision grand final.

In which case it is sounding very likely that Ukraine will not be present once again at the 2017 contest, as Russia remains the bookies’ favourite to win the contest tomorrow night.