RUSSIAN dancer Pasha Kovalev slammed his birth country’s invasion of Ukraine on today’s Lorraine.
The former Strictly star, who is married to Countdown’s Rachel Riley, also ignored the fallout on the BBC dance show following Russian stars Luba Mushtuk and Katya Jones’ failure to publicly condemn the war.
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He promoted Rise Up With The Arts, a star-studded event streaming on Mother’s Day that he has put together with dance partner of 25 years Anya Garnis to raise money for charities.
Proceeds will be split between Save The Children’s Emergency Ukraine Conflict Appeal, Acting for Others, The Actors Fund and icandance.
He said: “It’s so important to use your talent, dancing and art is something I’ve been doing all my life, to make a difference in the world. Especially, when the Ukraine situation started happening. We thought we can’t pass it not to say something.”
He went on to say: “It was difficult to comprehend this whole situation. I have Russian roots but at the same time my family goes back to Ukraine generations ago. I cannot even comprehend how those two nations can be in war.
“Most Russian people I know are definitely against war. And war with Ukraine shouldn’t be happening.”
Ukrainian Strictly star Nikita Kuzmin recently hit out at Russian friends in the dance world who refuse to condemn the invasion.
Nikita, who was partnered with Tilly Ramsay on the last series of the BBC One show, was born and raised in Ukraine before moving to Italy aged nine.
His elderly grandmother escaped Kyiv earlier this month, by walking miles in the freezing cold, when she could “barely walk”.
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The 24-year-old said on podcast Private Parts it was hard not to be ‘angry’ with fellow pros who have publicly ignored the crisis.
He said: “The only moment when I have actual anger, because I don’t like to experience anger, so I try always to find a different emotion, is when I see the friends which I have in Russia – mostly dancers – that don’t know, or ignore, or just don’t know better.
“Because of all the propaganda and all the influence which is happening.
“This makes me really angry because it’s just unfair.”
The Sun revealed Strictly dancers have been left divided on whether Katya and Luba should remain on the show, claiming it would be in “bad taste”.
Nikita, 24, and Nadiya Bychkova, 32, are Ukrainian.
A source on the show said: “Tensions are high and there’s a lot of strong feeling about this.
“Some of the dancers would want producers to make a decision and say ‘You can’t come back for the next series’.”
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