‘For ties with Russia’: Miss Ukraine competition has excluded three contestants from the list of candidates

The organizers of the “Miss Ukraine” contest have disqualified three contestants “due to their ties with Russia.”

The pageant committee made this statement after some contestants announced the withdrawal of their candidacies, expressing their unwillingness to compete against “pro-Russian” participants.

Several contestants were accused of having connections with Russia, but it is not specified who exactly has been excluded. For instance, one of the participants, Oksana Magera, is being accused of having lived in Moscow until 2022, maintaining social media accounts in Russian, and listening to Russian music.

Ekaterina Chuvashova was suspected of having “ties with Russia” because her father was allegedly detained by the Security Service of Ukraine.

Irina Pilyaeva faced online criticism because she was photographed two weeks ago on the yacht of Moscow restaurateur Alexander Orlov in Britain.

Additionally, three other contestants have come under scrutiny simply because they are from Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which, in other words, are regions associated with Russia.