Poland’s culture minister has expressed disappointment at the decision of Eurovision Song Contest organizers who announced talks with Britain to stage next year’s event instead of Ukraine in because of the war in the country.

Piotr Glinski said in a statement on Saturday that he regretted that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) “arbitrarily withdrew the Ukrainian public broadcaster AU:PBC the right to organize the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023”.

The statement published on the website of the Ministry of Culture was also signed by the president of the Polish public television channel TVP Jacek Kurski and the member of the board of directors of TVP Mateusz Matyszkowicz.

“We support the position of the AU:PBC and the Ukrainian authorities, in which they call for new negotiations on the organization of the competition with the participation of representatives of the country that won this year’s Eurovision,” the statement read. .

When on May 14 this year, the Kalush Orchestra of Ukraine won the Eurovision Song Contest in Italy with its participation “Stefania”, it was expected that, according to the long tradition of the event, the winning country hosts the competition the following year. But already at the time, there were fears that Ukraine, plunged into war, would not be up to the challenge.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, congratulating his compatriots on their performance, said he would do anything to ensure that next year’s event takes place in Mariupol, a city that has become a painful symbol of the bestiality of Russian troops.

But on Friday, the EBU said in a statement that “following an objective analysis…given the current circumstances, the security and operational guarantees required for a broadcaster to host, organize and produce the Eurovision Song Contest song… cannot be fulfilled by UA:PBC .”

Therefore, the EBU explained, it will now enter into discussions with the UK broadcaster, the BBC, to possibly hold the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in the UK, this year’s finalist.