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May 11, 2026, 10:27 a.m.
The head of the Department of Culture in Odesa was appointed without competition
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PHOTO: ONU named after Mechnikov
The interim mayor of Odesa, Ihor Koval , has appointed Olena Ivanova to head the Department of Culture, Tourism and Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Odesa City Council.
According to the Center for Public Investigations, the relevant order was published by the press service of the mayor's office.
Olena Ivanova started working on May 11 and was appointed without competition, but with a probationary period. Prior to that, she held the position of dean of the Faculty of Journalism at Mechnikov Odesa National University.
In her declaration of candidacy, Olena Ivanova indicated that she owns a 611-square-meter plot of land in the village of Prylymanske near Odesa, as well as a third of an apartment in Odesa. Her husband, Stanislav Biruk, owns seven acres in the village of Usatove and co-owns a 52.9-square-meter house in the same village. In 2024, Olena Ivanova purchased a 2015 Suzuki Vitara.
The family's income consists of Olena Ivanova's salary at the university - UAH 507.9 thousand and cashback of UAH 1.4 thousand, and savings of USD 35 thousand and EUR 6 thousand, which Olena Ivanova keeps in cash.
In November 2025, Ivan Liptuga, who headed the department, resigned. This was preceded by an appeal from the NGO Decolonization. Ukraine" to the heads of the Odesa MVA, Serhiy Lysak and the acting mayor, Ihor Koval, demanding that Ivan Liptuga be dismissed.
The authors of the appeal stated that for more than a year, there has been no action to dismantle the symbols of the "Russian world" that violate the law on decolonization. During this time, Liptuga and the department he heads have allegedly been writing back and delaying decisions under various pretexts, including the status of the monuments on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Ivan Liptuga was appointed head of the Department of Culture in January 2023. He has a degree in economics and law, and was the director of the Department of Tourism and Resorts of the Ministry of Economic Development of Ukraine. He is the president of the National Tourism Organization and Ukraine's marketing representative at the International Chamber of Commerce.
After that, the city council's website posted a decree appointing Dmytro Velychko as an artist and dean of the Art and Graphic Faculty of the South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University named after K.D. Ushynsky, which later disappeared from the website, and the department was headed by Fedir Stoyanov.
