Chinese opera singer angered Ukrainians with her performance at the Mariupol Theater

Wang Fang sang the Soviet song «Katyusha» during a visit to Chinese bloggers

Chinese opera singer caused fury in Ukraine after singing a Soviet song a song on the ruins of a bombed-out theater in occupied Mariupol, where hundreds of people died.

Wang Fang was filmed on the balcony of the hall singing «Katyusha», a World War II song. has become a symbol of Moscow's destruction in Ukraine.

‌The opera singer, whose husband is a prominent Chinese Communist Party propagandist, was allegedly part of a delegation of Chinese bloggers organized by the so-called Donetsk People's Movement. Republic.

‌Ukraine's Foreign Ministry announced on Friday it would ban Chinese «tourists» from entering the country in response to what it called an illegal visit that violated the country's border rules.

‌Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesman for the ministry, said the singer's performance was Russian a military song was called «complete moral degradation» in a Facebook post.

«Ukraine respects the territorial integrity of China and expects from the Chinese side to clarify the purpose of the stay of Chinese citizens in Mariupol, as well as the way of their entry into the temporarily occupied Ukrainian city,» he added.

‌Wang Fang spoke at the ruins of the Mariupol theater, where, less than a month after the invasion, Russian troops killed 600 civilians, mostly women and children, who had taken refuge inside.

‌Despite the fact that the Russian word for children was written on the street in large enough letters, so that a bomber could see them, this place was attacked last March, one of the most brutal atrocities of the war.

‌Katyusha was a popular Russian song from World War II, named after a mobile rocket launcher.

«Very touching»

‌Denis Pushilin, leader of the pro-Kremlin Donetsk People's Republic, an illegal breakaway region, described her performance as «very touching.»

‌It is not known what other Chinese influencers were invited to tour the Russian-occupied region in eastern Ukraine.

‌But the group also visited Crimea, a peninsula illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, according to a designated Russia's governor.

‌Sergey Aksyonov, the Russia-backed head of Crimea, described them as visiting Chinese businessmen and women in the hope of organizing cultural exchanges for music schools and other joint programs.

‌In a messenger message He added to Telegram: “China is a brotherly state of Russia.”

‌“According to the Chinese side, tourists from China are ready to come to Crimea, who are interested in seeing the riches of our peninsula.”