The singer did not deny that she worked with the Russians, but stated that she did not make the decision about this.
“I consider it necessary to provide an official explanation of my creative path and the information that appeared in the public space. In 2023–2024, I worked under the name Vesta as part of a production project. Decisions on digital promotion, distribution, mixing and mastering were made by the producer and were not within my area of responsibility,” the artist said.
She noted that she was only responsible for creativity.
“I did not work in Russia, an aggressor country, and did not release music for this market,” she emphasized. “The Vesta project is closed at the end of 2024. Since 2025, I have been working as Valeriya Force and am an artist on an American label and collaborate exclusively with a sound producer.”
The organizers of the Ukrainian national selection have not yet commented on the scandal.
Context
The organizers of the national selection announced that singer Valeriya Force had made it to the finals in early December 2025. In mid-January, many Telegram channels posted information about the artist’s collaboration with a Russian producer. One of the first to publish this information was Ukrainian blogger Bogdan Bespalov.
He said that Valeriya Force collaborated with Russian sound engineer D.Woo, who lives in the aggressor country of the Russian Federation and works with Russian singers.
