[12] On 24 January 2022, the eight selected competing acts were announced during a press conference held at the Radio Hub of the Public Media Academy of UA:PBC.

On 25 January 2022, UA:PBC announced that "Head Under Water", written by Daniel Boting and to have been performed by Laud, was disqualified from the national final as the song was previously released in 2018.

Eight entries competed and the winner, "Tini zabutykh predkiv" performed by Alina Pash, was selected through the combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury.

Lead singer Oleh Psiuk claimed that the organisers of the selection had refused to speak to him after several technical issues had occurred during the announcement of the results; incorrect points were given during the allocation of the televotes, leading to a failure of the electronic scoreboard with host Timur Miroshnychenko manually announcing the results from a sheet of paper.

[25] On a livestream, Psiuk claimed that the producer had refused to answer his questions, and went on to state that he intended to challenge the organisers in court.

Jury member and chairman of the organising committee, Yaroslav Lodyhin, stated that he would be ready to resign from his position as further proof of the broadcaster's good faith.

[28][29] On 16 February, a 2015 VK post by Kalush Orchestra member Tymofii Muzychuk surfaced, capturing him in front of St.

The group's management stated that the photo had been taken before 2014, and that Muzychuk had traveled to Russia in 2013 to perform at a Mykhailo Poplavskyi [uk] concert in Moscow and at an event in Krasnodar, which he claimed to have been his last time in the country.

[31] On 14 February 2022, activist and video blogger Serhii Sternenko alleged that Pash had entered Crimea from Russian territory in 2015, and counterfeited her travel documentation with her team in order to take part in Vidbir.

[33] Andrii Demchenko, speaking on behalf of the Guard Service, maintained that the certificate Pash had handed in to the broadcaster had not been issued by them, but that a request to cross the border had been made by the artist, and that UA:PBC would be provided with the results of the investigation by 16 February at 11:00 (EET).

[34][35] Chairwoman of the broadcaster's Supervisory Board, Svitlana Ostapa [uk], later called a meeting on 18 February in order to discuss the situation surrounding the national final.

[37] On 16 February, Pash claimed on an Instagram post that the State Border Guard Service had not been able to provide her with a new certificate as proof of her entrance to Crimea, as she had requested in the wake of the controversy, since related records are only kept for five years.

[38] Shortly after, Pash announced on her social media pages that she would withdraw her candidacy as the Ukrainian representative at the Eurovision Song Contest.

[39] On the same day, UA:PBC stated it had decided to "cease her participation" and that "the artist agreed with this decision of the organizing committee".

[41] Following the withdrawal of Alina Pash, UA:PBC stated that one of the entries that competed in the national final would be selected to represent Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 during the 18 February meeting.

[42][43] Kalush Orchestra were offered the proposal on 17 February, however it was later reported that they would refuse to sign the participation contract until the detailed results of the national final were released.

[46] Following the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, UA:PBC and Kalush Orchestra had yet to formally comment on whether their Eurovision participation would continue.

[52][53] The Ukrainian delegation was later exempted from the requirement to do so, with their national final performance acting as the 'live-on-tape' that would be used in the event that the group was unable to travel to Turin.

[54] On 2 April, UA:PBC confirmed that Kalush Orchestra and the rest of the delegation were given permission from state authorities to travel to Turin for the contest, adding that the group would also take part in promotional events across Europe to raise donations for war relief efforts.

[67] The stage displayed blue and yellow lighting with the view of a sunrise appearing on the LED screens at the beginning, and was followed by silhouettes of the group members that leaned left and right as well as hands and eyes, the latter of which symbolised the eyes of a mother that was "filled with tears because of the lost spring, and her hands that protect the yellow-and-blue universe" as stated by the Ukrainian delegation.

[70] Before the semi-final, it was revealed that the group were requested multiple times to rework their staging plans to remain apolitical, as "guided by the rules of 'out of politics'".

This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.

[77] The individual rankings of each jury member in an anonymised form as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

[83] Ukraine's ambassador to Poland Andrii Deshchytsia and the Ukrainian minister of culture Oleksandr Tkachenko criticized the jury's decision, with the latter calling it "embarrassing".