LIBYA: Kadafi’s nurse reportedly deserts him, returns to Ukraine

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Ukrainian media reports suggest that Galyna Kolotnytska, the 38-year-old nurse and close confidante of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, has deserted the embattled ruler and returned home to Ukraine.

On Monday, the Ukrainian newspaper Segodnya reported that Kolotnytska, described as a ‘voluptuous blonde’ in leaked U.S. Embassy cables, returned to the town of Brovary on Sunday and that she had bought an apartment there.

According to the article, titled ‘Kadafi’s nurse is already in Brovary’, Kolotnytska was spotted leaving her residence dressed in dark clothes and wearing ‘stylish sunglasses’ to go shopping with her mother. The two bought several kilos of oranges and juice, added the report.

Kolotnytska herself did not appear to be in a mood to chat, telling Segodnya’s journalists to leave her alone.

‘Please don’t disturb me, I’m in a such condition,’ the paper quoted her as saying.

Her neighbors, however, expressed delight about her return.

‘Yes, she arrived tonight, we are very glad. She is such a good kid,’ they told reporters Dmytro Homon and Ihor Serov.

Kolotnytskya’s relationship with the besieged Libyan leader has been shrouded in mystery, and there has been speculation about whether she was involved romantically with Kadafi. Leaked U.S. Embassy cables posted on the whistle-blower site WikiLeaks suggest that she was indispensable to Kadafi and that the Libyan leader was completely reliant on her. One report said Kadafi ‘cannot travel’ without her because she is the only one who ‘knows his routine.’

Asked by Segodnya’s reporters whether her daughter had been Kadafi’s mistress, Kolotnytskya’s mother answered that reports suggesting such a thing ‘dishonor’ her daughter.

-- Alexandra Sandels in Beirut