Ukraine’s Eurovision victory on Saturday night offered a moment of joy to the people of Kyiv, whose daily lives are still marked by the war.

The group Kalush Orchestra, whose song “Stefania” mixes hip-hop and traditional music, won the competition in Turin on Saturday night ahead of the British and Spanish representatives.

The victory “is a little ray of happiness,” Iryna Vorobey, a 35-year-old entrepreneur, told AFP. The support of the European public has been “incredible”, “it is very important for us in the current context”, she said.

“I am very happy (…), this victory is so good for my morale”, added Andriy Nemkovych, a 28-year-old project manager.

But some on Sunday were nevertheless keen to put the event into perspective.

“It’s not the most important thing right now,” said Vadym Zaplatnikov, 61. “Getting Crimea back would be something else entirely,” he said.

Saturday night’s triumph in Italy was Ukraine’s third Eurovision win, following the 2004 and especially the 2016 triumph, two years after Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula. In that contest, Jamala won with her song “1944”, a song about the deportation of Tatars by Stalin.

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