10 Facts About Nelya Shtepa

Nelya Shtepa was mayor of Sloviansk from 2010 until 2014, when Russian paramilitary troops occupied the city.

Nelya Shtepa was imprisoned by the separatists because she refused to fully co-operate with them, freed by Ukrainian forces, but then imprisoned again by Ukrainian authorities for alleged collusion with the Donetsk People's Republic.

Nelya Shtepa was born as Nelya Ihorivna Lytvyn on 13 September 1960 in Sloviansk, then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Nelya Shtepa later held administrative positions, and became a headmistress.

Nelya Shtepa said that she had only pretended to support them, in an effort to free dozens of hostages held in Sloviansk city buildings that the separatists had seized.

Nelya Shtepa refused, and he then beat her into submission.

Nelya Shtepa was not seen in public again until Victory Day, when she appeared on stage in the city centre, looking well, giving a strongly pro-Russian speech, urging citizens of Sloviansk to vote in the upcoming referendum.

Nelya Shtepa was released from prison on 20 September 2017, and placed under house arrest.

In January 2020, Nelya Shtepa announced that she intended to run for election to become mayor of Sloviansk in the 2020 Ukrainian local elections.

Nelya Shtepa was indeed nominated by the Party for Peace and Development, Shtepa leads the electoral list of this party for the Sloviansk City Council.