Russian occupants appointed Kateryna Umanets, a former resident of Melitopol, to manage the resort village of Kyrylivka in Melitopol district. She fled to Moscow in 2017 after the State Security Service of Ukraine opened criminal proceedings against her on suspicion of treason due to her contacts with the Russian special services. Umanets returned from Russia to the occupied territory of the Zaporizhzhia oblast at the beginning of May.
Residents of Kyrylivka reported it to the Center for Journalist Investigations. Occupants presented new «leader» of the community, Kateryna Umanets, to employees of Kyrylivka village council and communal enterprises on May 26. She hided from the State Security Service of Ukraine in Russia for five years and
returned to her homeland after the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine.
«They gathered everyone they could find and said that Kateryna would now be the «mayor». They said that everyone who wants to work should come to the meeting tomorrow, local residents say. Local residents say that there are already candidates for her deputies but their names were not yet made public.
Kateryna Umanets has been known to the residents of oblast since 2014. She took an anti-Ukrainian position during the Revolution of Dignity, led the «Russian Spring» movement, was an organizer and an active participant of anti-Ukrainian rallies.
In 2017, the Security Service of Ukraine opened criminal proceedings against Umanets on suspicion of treason. According to the investigation, she maintained contacts with representatives of the special services of the Russian Federation and, upon their instructions, took actions aimed at harming the information security of Ukraine.
After the opening of criminal proceedings, Umanets fled to Moscow, where she worked as a realtor. She returned to Melitopol at the beginning of May 2022 after the occupation of Zaporizhzhia oblast.
Kateryna Umanets was born in 1985 in Melitopol. She was a member of the Communist Party of Ukraine, and after its ban she became the head of the local organization of the Union of Left Forces, which united former communists in Melitopol district.
As reported, occupants abducted head of the Kyrylivka territorial community Ivan Maleev, his deputy Ihor Korobka, and the director of the local Center for Culture, Leisure and Art Education Tetiana Shiyan. Local residents were told that Maleev and Korobka would not return to their community. Occupants would release them under condition that they would not intervene into the activity of “new occupation authorities”.
Material is prepared by non-profit «Information press center» within IWPR project under the support of the European Union and the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
