Many theaters abandoned staging Russian ballets, including Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. At the same time, the National Ballet of Ukraine embarked on a world tour, staging, among other things, this production. This was met with comments and misunderstandings from some ballet lovers. The Ukrainian version is based on a libretto leading to a happy ending, hence some viewers are trying to interpret this as a symbolic message that the Evil Spirit (Russia) is finally defeated by the good. However, this has not been officially confirmed.
