Military Ombudsman: what we know about Olha Reshetylova

Yesterday, on December 30, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed the first military ombudsman, Olha Reshetylova. UNN collected information about who she is and what she did before her new position.

Olha Reshetylova is a journalist, civic activist, human rights defender and the new military ombudsman.

Olha graduated from Ostroh Academy, where she studied political science. However, she never worked a day in her field of study, as she became interested in journalism while still a student. Her first professional experience was working for the student newspaper. Later, she joined the editorial staff of the newspaper Den, where she was responsible for the regional network. For five years, Olga developed in this field, but after the birth of her son, she decided to leave journalism.

In 2014, when Russian aggression began in eastern Ukraine, Olga co-founded one of the largest charitable foundations supporting the Ukrainian army, Come Back Alive. She was responsible for coordinating the foundation's work with law enforcement agencies and directly with the military in the ATO zone. 

According to her, frequent trips to the frontline gave her the opportunity to see violations of the rights of soldiers and civilians during the war. 

“I saw our units shooting at each other for some smuggling route. I know how civilians were mocked or how volunteers were pressured by the military. And I did not understand what to do about it. On the one hand, society believes that there are heroes here, and there really are. On the other hand, I saw that there are unheroic things that need to be talked about, but which people are not ready to accept,” she said in an interview with The Ukrainians.

In 2015, Olga decided to leave the foundation to focus on investigative journalism in the security sector. At the same time, she collaborated with the Russian liberal publication Grani.Ru, covering events in Ukraine. 

In 2016, Olha, together with her colleague Maria Tomak, founded the Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIPHR), a non-governmental organization that documents war crimes and human rights violations related to Russian aggression. MIPL also became an active advocate for the establishment of a military ombudsman in Ukraine. Olga eventually became the head of this organization.

Already in 2019, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine appointed Olga to the commission for the selection of the head of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption. 

As for the journalist's declarations, as of 2021, she owned only a 98 m2 plot of land. 

Recall

Yesterday, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Olga Reshetylova as the Presidential Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Servicemen and Family Members of Soldiers.