Luxury New Year’s Eve trip to Paris
Ukrainians angry at this customs officer
The press spokeswoman for the border guards in Ukraine has a good time in her free time and likes to escape from everyday wartime life. She is now reaping a shit storm for this. No wonder: while Ukrainians freeze in their cold apartments, she enjoys celebrating New Year’s Eve.
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The Ukrainian Ivanna Plantovskaya works for the border guard in Odessa.
The sparkling Eiffel Tower, expensive cars, big parties – if you look at the pictures of Ivanna Plantovskaya, press officer for the Ukrainian border guard in Odessa, you might think there would be no war. Your recent posts show life in luxury, while a large part of the Ukrainian population has no electricity, no water and no warm housing. The anger in her homeland is correspondingly great.
The Paris trip isn’t the only trip Plantovskaya has made since the outbreak of war. A picture in a bikini on the beach is followed by another in uniform in the middle of the war. The Ukrainians had expected something different from an officer who works at the border.
A wave of hate comments flooded her social media accounts. Plantovskaya has now made her Tiktok account private and deactivated her Facebook and Instagram profiles – but too late.
“A war has started”
Screenshots of Plantovskaya’s pictures are doing the rounds. The young woman is forced to react and posts a screenshot with angry messages. She commented: “That’s only 0.00001 percent of the messages I get. Someone managed to start a war in the country.”
Some Ukrainians sided with Plantovskaya. After all, one cannot forbid leading a “beautiful” life. So while Ukrainians are fighting at the front lines, a war is raging on Plantovskaya’s internet profiles.
For many Ukrainian citizens it is incomprehensible that Plantovskaya is allowed to travel abroad to go on vacation. They wonder how she can afford such a glamorous life and whether it’s appropriate to publicize it at a time of crisis.
“Disrespectful and cynical”
The accusations could now hit your superior Sergei Mulu, head of the southern directorate of the state border protection service. Because in November, according to the Ukrainian portal “Strana-News”, searches were carried out on Mulu because he allegedly owned a villa that he had not registered. The allegations could not be confirmed.
There have been similar cases in the past that have caused a lot of resentment with consequences. A Kharkov officer, for example, vacationed in Nice and Monaco in November while the city was under fire. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov then said such posts were “cynical” and “disrespectful,” writes Strana-News. The officer was then fired. (jwg)