Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine's former ambassador to the U.S., charged in corruption case

Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities on Thursday charged former Ambassador to the U.S. Olha Stefanishyna with seeking “illicit enrichment” after failing to declare two apartments registered in a friend’s name.

Ms. Stefanishyna, who was sacked Monday as Ukraine’s envoy to the U.S., was released from custody after posting bail of about $134,000.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office also accused her of owning another apartment registered in her mother’s name, a parking space in another complex registered to her father and a Mercedes-Benz that was listed in a subordinate’s name.

“In addition, she was negotiating the purchase of a house near Kyiv with an estimated value of $550,000,” Ukrainian officials said in a statement. “According to the plan, $250,000 was to be paid in cash, and the remaining amount was to be paid by transferring [two other apartments] to the seller.”

Prosecutors said Ms. Stefanishyna’s income was not sufficient to purchase the property.

She has denied the corruption allegations, calling them “a storm in a teapot.”

“I treat these events calmly and without unnecessary emotions,” Ms. Stefanishyna posted on Facebook after the charges were released. “It is the one who brings charges who should prove it. I will do what I can: calmly and within the law, to defend my position.

She was Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington for just under a year. Shortly before she was dismissed, Ms. Stefanishyna told NewsNGR she would return to Ukraine to answer corruption allegations not connected to her work. She said she was not being pushed out of government.

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy “doesn’t want me to resign. He wants me to stay in the position,” Ms. Stefanishyna said last week.