Ukraine's Justice Ministry will fight the reinstatement in court of an ex-official who obtained a Russian passport in occupied Crimea after the peninsula's illegal annexation, the ministry wrote on Jan. 15.
Although the ministry did not mention her by name, Ukrainska Pravda reported, citing sources, that the ex-official in question was Maryna Prylutska, a former civil servant who worked for the Justice Ministry itself. Prylutska was dismissed in 2021 on the grounds that she had citizenship of a foreign country while holding public office, which she later appealed.
Ukraine's law does not recognize double citizenship, and a Russian passport in the hands of a public official is a particular cause for concern.
The ministry wrote that Ukraine's Supreme Court ruled that Prylutska's appeal, which was previously refused, must be heard again by the Sixth Administrative Appeals Court.
Without explicitly naming Prylutska, the ministry wrote that she had gone to Yalta in occupied Crimea after 2014 and received a Russian passport. The statement further read that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) provided documents to support the claim that Prylutska acquired a Russian passport.
The ministry also added that Prylutska had contacts with Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) while in occupied Crimea.
RFE/RL's investigative project Schemes reported on Jan. 10 that the Kyiv District Administrative Court ruled to reinstate Bohdan Lvov, a former head of the commercial chamber of Ukraine's Supreme Court who was also found to have a Russian passport.
Anna Myroniuk
(Updated: )
