Halyna Kolotnytska
Encyclopedia
Halyna Kolotnytska is a Ukrainian
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 nurse and a former member of her country's Antarctic research mission. She is mostly known for her close association with former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...

.

Biography

Kolotnytska was born in 1972 in Brovary
Brovary
Brovary is a city in Kiev Oblast in northern Ukraine, an eastern suburb of the country's capital, Kiev. It is the administrative centre of the Brovarskyi Raion . Brovary is an ancient town, firstly mentioned in 1630. Its name translated from Ukrainian means "brewers"...

, in the Ukrainian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...

 of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 (in present-day Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

). She graduated from an unspecified nursing college
Vocational education
Vocational education or vocational education and training is an education that prepares trainees for jobs that are based on manual or practical activities, traditionally non-academic, and totally related to a specific trade, occupation, or vocation...

 in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

 and has been commuting
Commuting
Commuting is regular travel between one's place of residence and place of work or full time study. It sometimes refers to any regular or often repeated traveling between locations when not work related.- History :...

 to her work since. Kolotnytska's husband, an electrician at a local factory, died in 1992, after which Kolotnytska moved from her local nursing job to a cook
Cook (profession)
A cook is a person who prepares food for consumption. In Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Canada this profession requires government approval ....

 position at Ukraine's Antarctic research station
Vernadsky Research Base
Vernadsky Research Base is a Ukrainian Antarctic Station at Marina Point on Galindez Island in the Argentine Islands, Antarctica.-United Kingdom:...

. There she was described as "cooking marvelously" and "harshly enforcing hygiene rules". Kolotnytska moved to Libya in 2001, with the help of a medical agency acquired abroad, where she first worked at a hospital and then went on to serve Gaddafi. At the time Libya was a popular destination for Ukrainian physicians because the payments there were better than in Ukraine. According to various estimates, there were about 500 Ukrainian doctors and nurses in Libya early 2011. It is reported that Gaddafi employed four nurses from Ukraine.

Kolotnytska left Libya in the midst of the 2011 Libyan civil war
2011 Libyan civil war
The 2011 Libyan civil war was an armed conflict in the North African state of Libya, fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and those seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Benghazi beginning on 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security...

; evacuated by the Ukrainian ministry of defence she arrived in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

 (the capital of Ukraine) on 27 February 2011.

Kolotnytska applied for political asylum in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 early May 2011. Norwegian authorities swiftly refused to grant asylum to her.

United States diplomatic cables leak

Kolotnytska was described by Gene Cretz
Gene Cretz
Gene A. Cretz is a career diplomat, who was nominated in July 2007 by President Bush to be the first U.S. Ambassador to Libya since 1972. His nomination was confirmed by the US Senate on November 21, 2008. He was sworn-in as U.S. Ambassador to Libya by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on...

, the U.S. ambassador to Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

, as the "voluptuous blonde" without whom Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...

, leader of Libya, never traveled. The characterization surfaced after the secret diplomatic cable sent by Cretz was revealed by WikiLeaks
Wikileaks
WikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...

 as a part of its United States diplomatic cables leak
United States diplomatic cables leak
The United States diplomatic cables leak, widely known as Cablegate, began in February 2010 when WikiLeaks—a non-profit organization that publishes submissions from anonymous whistleblowers—began releasing classified cables that had been sent to the U.S. State Department by 274 of its consulates,...

. The cable was sent from the United States embassy in Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...

on 29 September 2009. It was also revealed that the Libyan government sent a private jet to ferry her from Libya to Portugal to meet up with the Leader during his rest-stop. Kolotnytska alone is said to have "known Gaddafi's routine". Kolotnytska's daughter Tatyana and her mother Iryna have categorically denied that Kolotnytska was the mistress of Gaddafi.
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