Khotyn Fortress director to become CEO of Kyiv Pechersk Lavra

Director of the State Historic Architectural Conservation Area Khotyn Fortress Liubomyr Mykhailyna will soon be appointed the director general of Kyiv Pechersk Lavra Historical and Cultural Reserve, the Segodnia newspaper wrote with a reference to Culture Minister Mykhailo Kulyniak.

"The order on his appointment will appear next week. He is a scientist, a museum worker," the culture minister told the newspaper.

The Web site of the Culture Ministry reported that on August 31 Kyiv Pechersk Lavra hosted a meeting of the supervisory board chaired by Kulyniak. This meeting addressed the candidacy for the post of the new director general of the museum complex – Ph.D. (History) Liubomyr Mykhailyna, who previously headed the Khotyn Fortress.

As reported, Viktoria Lisnycha was sacked on August 9 following the dismissal of a number of employees and a scandal with a bribe that former Deputy Director General for International Cooperation Vlada Prokayeva allegedly gave Culture Minister Mykhailo Kulyniak for her post.

According to the media, the checks of the Culture Ministry of Ukraine showed that Lisnycha made serious violations of the existing labor laws and terms of her contract with the ministry. In particular, on July 31 she ordered the dismissal of four employees of the museum complex, presumably based on the protocol of a meeting with the minister. However, the museum's office has no such protocol.

In late July employees of the national reserve wrote an open letter to Ukrainian Culture Minister Mykhailo Kulyniak and asked him to dismiss Deputy Director General for Scientific and Sightseeing Activities Svitlana Zorynets and Deputy Director General for International Cooperation and ex-model Vlada Prokayeva. The employees explained their demand by the fact that the abovementioned persons threatened and "humiliated" them.

Later on, Prokayeva stated in public that she gave a bribe of $50,000 to Ukrainian Culture Minister Mykhailo Kulyniak for her appointment as deputy director general of Kyiv Pechersk Lavra National Historical and Cultural Reserve.

Prokayeva was dismissed from the post on July 31 after having worked at it for less than a month. According to media reports, the ex-model had a conflict with the director of the reserve, Viktoria Lisnycha.

In turn, the culture minister denied he had taken a bribe.

The Interior Ministry of Ukraine has been instructed by the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine to check the statements by Vlada Prokayeva.