The ongoing crisis in the Crimea region, which voted to become part of Russia last weekend, is at the root of the decision to give up hosting rights.

Following the vote, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty in Moscow yesterday declaring Crimea part of Russia despite vociferous protests from Ukraine and widespread condemnation from the international community.

"I cannot imagine how to carry out preparations in the current severe economic and political conditions," Lubkivsky told Reuters.

"The first and main unfavourable condition is the aggression of Russia towards the Ukraine that has caused instability and threatens the security of south-eastern regions of Ukraine.

"This situation demands for Ukraine to review our priorities and concentrate financial and political resources for saving territorial integrity and even independence.

"The other factor is a complicated financial situation.

"There is a need to resolve hard social issues of higher priority.

"It is obvious our country cannot afford to support private investors building the arenas or fund preparations that we are responsible for.

"Moreover, the local Organising Committee feels [there is a] lack of time."

The ongoing crisis in Crimea and months of violent protests have forced Ukraine to pull out of hosting EuroBasket 2015 ©Getty Images



FIBA Europe, the European branch of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), met with representatives from the Ukrainian Basketball Federation and EuroBasket 2015 officials in Munich last month to discuss the current state of affairs in the country and how it affects preparations for the event.

The FIBA Europe Board had announced it would review the situation further at its next meeting due to take place this weekend.

Ukraine was awarded the tournament in December 2011 and was due to host games in Kyiv, Donetsk, Lviv, Odessa, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk.

Yesterday the French Basketball Federation (FFBB) submitted an offer to FIBA offering to host the tournament should the crisis in Ukraine escalate.

There have also been rumours of several other countries interested in hosting the event with Italy, Greece, Poland, Czech Republic, Serbia, Austria, Croatia and Germany among those reported to be ready to step in.

Lubkivsky, who oversaw the running of the UEFA Euro 2012 Championships in Ukraine, revealed that the Ukrainian Basketball Federation will ask FIBA to consider staging the tournament in the Ukraine in 2017.

"With regard to the ongoing events I think we have the right to ask FIBA to grant Ukraine the opportunity to stage the tournament in 2017, in trusting the championship in 2015 to some other European country or even a few," he said.

"It would be fair as we have already done a lot of preparation [and] started to construct the arenas that might be unfinished."

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