Ukraine’s Ambassador to Oman became Olha Selykh: the owner of a construction company, linked to questionable state tenders and without diplomatic experience

Ukraine’s Ambassador to Oman became Olha Selykh: the owner of a construction company, linked to questionable state tenders and without diplomatic experience

The President of Ukraine has appointed Olha Selykh as the ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman — despite her lack of any diplomatic experience. Selykh is mainly known as the head of a construction company and a participant in controversial state tenders.

Selykh began her professional career in 2008 as the general director and owner of LLC "KYIV Invest-Bud," which she still manages. She has also been a lawyer, an advisor at the "National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine," and headed LLC "Global Bud-Project."

Selykh and her sister, Lyudmyla Dyakova (Selykh), have repeatedly won tenders for repair work in the state agency "Ukrinform." The scheme involved companies "Kyiv Invest-Bud" and "Electro-Trading Ukraine," which alternately won almost half of all agency procurements.

Olha Selykh has never worked within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs system. For her appointment, she urgently completed courses for extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassadors at the Diplomatic Academy named after Hennadiy Udovenko.

Her personal Facebook account also attracted attention: among the liked pages are Russian-speaking publics like "Women’s Paradise," "A World for You," and "Words Beyond Time." Among the people she follows are plastic surgeon Rostyslav Valikhnovskyi, chef Yevhen Klopotenko, artist Ivan Marchuk, and Russian psychologist Mikhail Labkovsky. Her music preferences — Olya Polyakova.