Anna Durytska ( Ukrainian: Анна Дурицька; born 27 November 1991) is a Ukrainian

fashion model A model is a person with a role either to display commercial products (notably fashion clothing in fashion shows) or to serve as an artist's model. Modelling ("modeling" in American English) entails using one's body to represent someone ...

, and was a finalist for

Miss Ukraine Universe Miss Ukraine Universe () is national beauty pageant in Ukraine. The winner represents Ukraine at the most prestigious international beauty contest "Miss Universe". The pageant exists since 2006, after the Miss Ukraine Organization lost the Miss ...

in 2018. She is known for having been in a relationship with Russian politician

Boris Nemtsov Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov; (9 October 195927 February 2015) was a Russian physicist, liberalism in Russia, liberal politician, and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. Early in his political career, he was involved in the introduction of reform ...

, and was the only eyewitness to his 2015 assassination.

Assassination of Boris Nemtsov

On 27 February 2015, she was the sole eyewitness to the

assassination of Boris Nemtsov On 27 February 2015, Boris Nemtsov, a Russian politician opposed to the government of Vladimir Putin, was assassinated as he crossed the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge in central Moscow at 23:31 local time. An unknown assailant fired seven or eight s ...

. Durytska had been in a relationship for over two years with Nemtsov, a leading opposition figure to

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

, and

Russian military intervention in Ukraine The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia occupied and annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then supported Russian paramilitaries who began a war in the eastern Donbas re ...

. She was held under

house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...

by Russian police following the murder. The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine stated that it had intervened to secure her release and return from Moscow. Pro-Kremlin Russian news agencies had claimed that she was forced by Nemtsov to have an abortion in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, in an attempt to implicate her and the

Security Service of Ukraine The Security Service of Ukraine ( ; abbreviated as SBU [] or SSU) is the main Internal security, internal security agency of the Government of Ukraine, Ukrainian government. Its main duties include counter-intelligence activity and combati ...

in the murder. On returning to

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, Ukraine, she went into hiding, under protection of armed guards, assigned to her by the

Prosecutor General of Ukraine The Prosecutor General of Ukraine (also ''Procurator General''; , ) heads the system of official prosecution in courts known as the Office of the Prosecutor General (, or, before 2020, ). The prosecutor general is appointed and dismissed by th ...

, after she had received death threats. Pro-Kremlin news agencies leaked provocative photos of Durytska, in an attempt to discredit her, following which she refused to return to Russia to testify in the trial. In December 2018, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' republished Durytska's ''

TV Rain TV Rain ( rus, Дождь, Dozhd, p=ˈdoʂtʲ, a=Ru-дождь (doʂtʲ).ogg; stylized as ДО///ДЬ) is an independent Russian-language television channel. Launched in Russia in 2010, it has been based in the Netherlands since 2022. It focuse ...

'' interview from the time of her release, in which she called for the street of the Russian Embassy in London to be renamed in memory of Nemtsov.

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

had previously done so, under the "D.C. Law 22-92 Boris Nemtsov Plaza Designation Act of 2018".

Personal life

In 2017, she planned to join her friend Ankit Love in London, and attend

Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Central Saint Martins is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art university in London, England. The college offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of short ...

. In 2022, after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Durytska fled the country, driving from Kyiv to Sofia, and then arriving to London by air, where she applied for asylum. In April 2022, her friend Ankit Love was detained by Bulgarian police near

Godech Godech ( ) is a town located in the Sofia Province, of Bulgaria. The town is founded in a valley on the far west of Stara Planina, where the Nishava River passes. The settlement is about 20 km east of the Serbian border and has its highes ...

, while driving a

Mercedes-Benz G-Class The Mercedes-Benz G-Class, colloquially known as the G-Wagon or G-Wagen (as an abbreviation of Geländewagen), is a four-wheel drive luxury SUV manufactured by Magna Steyr (formerly Steyr-Daimler-Puch) in Graz, Styria, Austria, and sold by Mercede ...

with Ukrainian licence plates, that belonged to Durytska, back to London for her. The car was filled with her designer clothing and jewellery worth over $100,000. Bulgarian police had confiscated Durytska's car, after detaining and questioning Ankit Love for seven hours.

References

External links

Anna Duritskaya Miss Ukraine Universe 2018 candidate
via YouTube
Anna Duritskaya on Instagram
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duritskaya, Anna 1991 births Living people Ukrainian female models