Russian aggression has always taken several forms, among which the information neutralization of everything Ukrainian – culture, historical memory, music, literature – occupied a significant place. In 2023, a campaign was conducted on the largest in history discrediting of the translation award named after Maksym Rylskyi, which was awarded for the book “Irpin – my home”. This English-language publication topped the rating of literary scandals in 2024 according to the authoritative Ukrainian publication about literature and book publishing house “Chitomo”. A number of media outlets named Taisiya Yusupova as the main culprit of this scandal. Who is Taisiya Yusupova? We tried to get the answer to this question from open sources.
In the article “Discredited awards and failed public procurement programs: literary scandals of 2024,” experts of “Chitomo” confidently called the awarding of the book “Irpin – my home” “discrediting the Rylskyi award”.
The ideologue of the nomination of this book for the honorable award was Taisiya Yusupova, who convinced the then mayor of Irpin Oleksandr Markushyn of the need for such a step. She succeeded very easily, because she has been his roommate and PR consultant for several years.
Taisiya Yusupova involved Andrew Shepard, who has close ties to Russia, in the translation of the book “Irpin – My Home”: he is a member of the editorial board of the British-Russian Society magazine “East-West” (Great Britain-Russia Society).
Yusupova herself also has a pro-Russian mark. In particular, the publication of the publication “New Format” states that Yusupova Taisiya Valeriivna is a black PR person who previously worked as the editor-in-chief of the TV program “Eagle and Reshka”, and her ex-husband is the founder of the Credit Union “REVIVAL OF DONBAS”, which operates in the city of Alchevsk in the Luhansk region, which has been occupied since 2014.
“Taisiya Yusupova comes from Zaporizhzhia and moved to the city of Irpin in 2023. According to media information, she is a cohabitant of the current mayor of Irpin Oleksandr Markushin. According to publicly available data from the YouControl system, Taisiya Valeriivna Yusupova was registered on 08.07.2022 as a sole proprietor with two types of activities (73.11 Advertising agencies and 63.99, Provision of other information services). According to open data from the OpenData system, Taisiya Yusupova is divorced from her previous husband Ihor Olegovich Kobtsev, who is the founder of the Credit Union “REVIVAL OF DONBASU”, which operates in the city of Alchevsk, Luhansk region, which has been occupied since 2014. Currently, the security agencies of Ukraine should examine the founders of the Credit Union “Revival of Donbass” for involvement in the creation of separatist management bodies of the terrorist organization “LPR” in the city of Alchevsk, Luhansk region. After all, when the company is still registered in the occupied territory of Ukraine, to whom does it pay taxes and does it finance Russian terror in Ukraine in this way?” — the publication says.
Before Markushyn’s removal from the post of mayor, Taisiya Yusupova actually coordinated the information policy of the executive committee of the Irpin City Council. She formed Markushyn’s shadow press service, whose employees paid in cash from the funds withdrawn from the budget using a salary scheme: the employees of the executive committee were forced to return part of their salaries, specially overstated for this purpose. In June 2024 alone, UAH 6.6 million was spent on the salaries of the executive committee’s employees from the hromada budget. This is a record amount in recent years. As it turned out, about 40 employees of the executive committee received salaries from 60 thousand to 150 thousand hryvnias. In particular, the chief accountant of the IMR Khrystyna Hluzhanets received UAH 146 thousand, the chief specialist of the organizational department Maksym Levitskyi — UAH 144 thousand, the mayor Oleksandr Markushin — UAH 133 thousand, the deputy chief accountant of the IMR Olena Ganzha — UAH 127.5 thousand, the manager of the executive committee Tetiana Yaroshenko — UAH 100 thousand, the head of the land department Anastasia Cherkas — UAH 98 thousand, the head of the Central NPP Yulia Yurchenko — UAH 89 thousand, etc.
With the appearance of Taisiya Yusupova in Irpin, the city authorities began to regularly get into scandals with a pro-Russian flavor.
At the end of 2024, Valeriy Stepanyuk, an adviser to the mayor of Irpin, repost Russian soldiers on the official Telegram channel. At the same time, Markushin did not comment on the situation. A few days later, Valeriy Stepaniuk published a post stating that he was leaving the position of mayor’s adviser, but at the same time he continued to work in this position. In order not to show which of the controversial advisers is still employed in the executive committee, Markushin blocked the provision of answers to official requests regarding the executive committee’s staffing list, although the mayor’s office had previously officially and systematically provided such answers.
The information “drain tank” “Partisan”, which is actively promoted by Oleksandr Markushyn, is also associated with Taisiya Yusupova. It was created after Yusupova appeared near Markushyn, and it was “Partisan” that took the publication of the Ukrainian OCU and reworked it under the text of the Moscow UOC. After the readers’ remark, it was corrected, but not in all parts of the text. At the same time, the Facebook page “Partisan” is in Russian.
The Internet publication “Insider” told about another game of Yusupova Russia. The publication “Irpin Mayor Markushin ordered a media attack on the President’s party” says that during December 2024, Oleksandr Markushin spent more than $30,000 on a black PR campaign against the secretary of the Irpin City Council Angela Makeeva, who represents the Servant of the People party. Makeeva publicly stated at the budget commission about Markushin’s salary schemes and opposed the salary increase for elected officials of the executive committee. Makeeva also did not support the increase in the cost of utility tariffs for Irpin residents. In response, Yusupova organized a campaign to discredit Makeyeva on Telegram channels and on websites that were run by the executive committee’s employees for budget money.
One of the most resonant recent scandals was a story reminiscent of an attempt to deliberately strike a Russian strike on the concentration of the Ukrainian military. In Irpin, it was planned to hold a special Donor Day to help wounded soldiers. The action “Blood brothers” was organized by the Land Forces of Ukraine. For security reasons, the event was not announced publicly – and it was absolutely justified. But “healthy logic” does not seem to be for the black PR woman Yusupova and former mayor Markushin. A week before the event, a post was published on the ex-mer’s public page indicating the exact location and time, urging the military, veterans and families of the fallen Heroes to come from 12:00 to 14:00. In fact, the data for the Russian missile is ready. After a wave of public outrage, Markushin did not delete the publication, but accused critics of political involvement – despite the fact that he himself had already been suspended from office by a court decision and a city council session. In the end, the event had to be canceled. Later, he was safely held in Bucha.
Irpin ex-ex-maner Alexander Markushin himself has a pro-Russian trace. Information about a large-scale scheme of embezzlement of funds from local budgets allocated for the reconstruction of the affected Irpin community by Markushyn’s entourage received significant resonance in the media. In particular, it was about the main contractor – a close friend of Markushyn, Serhii Rostalny. According to the “YouControl” system, Serhii Valeriyovych Rosstalny was an assistant to the People’s Deputy from the “Party of Regions” Nestor Shufrych. On September 3, ex-regional Nestor Shufrych received a new suspicion in the pre-trial detention center: he is accused of financing the Rosgvardia in Crimea. The investigation claims that Shufrych paid money to the Russians for the paramilitary protection of his elite real estate on the peninsula. For 3 months of 2016, his company paid the occupiers more than 500 thousand Russian rubles. In the summer of 2024, the publication “Neslamni.City” published the article “525 million from the budget for the mayor’s friends and how to get 170 thousand UAH with a salary of 6 thousand: life hacks from the IMR”, and the publication “Resonance” published an article “The entourage of the mayor of Irpen Markushin received 525 million from the budget for post-war reconstruction”. By the way, Yusupova tried to remove these materials from the Google search, and the funds for all this were again taken from the salary schemes in the executive committee.
At the same time, Oleksandr Markushin is a defendant in more than 18 criminal proceedings for kidnapping, theft of budget funds and community property, forging of signatures and documents.
Recall that on January 23, 2025, SBI investigators reported suspicion to the mayor of Irpin, Oleksandr Markushin, under Part 2 of Art. 332 CCU (organization of illegal transportation of people across the state border). On January 24, the Pecherskyi District Court chose a preventive measure for Markushyn — detention until March 22 with the possibility of paying bail in the amount of UAH 30 million. On January 27, the court removed Oleksandr Markushin from the post of mayor of Irpin. On February 3, the Kyiv Court of Appeal changed the preventive measure to round-the-clock house arrest, and on April 8, it was mitigated to night house arrest from 23:00 to 06:00. On July 29, the Irpin City Council prematurely terminated Oleksandr Markushyn’s powers. 28 deputies voted for expressing no confidence in him, one against.
On October 8, 2025, employees of the Department of Strategic Investigations in the Kyiv region reported suspicion to Irpin ex-smer Oleksandr Markushin. He is incriminated with abuse of official position (Part 2 of Art. 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) during the write-off of the old city boilerhouse, which was on the balance sheet of the KP “Teploenergopostach”. According to the investigation, the building of the communal facility was illegally taken out of the community’s property. It was written off and it had to be dismantled. But in fact, there was no dismantling, the structure remained intact and later passed into private use. According to Markushin’s instructions, it was used for rent. In 2020, half of the premises became the property of Lyudmyla Gaina, Markushyn’s codent, and the registration was registered by his wife, a private notary Natalia Badrudinova. Therefore, Lyudmyla Haina and the then head of the CP “Teploenergopostach” Arthur Zahodirenko may also be involved in the commission of the crime.
Returning to the story of Taisiya Yusupova, who turned around with the book “Irpin – my home”, it could have been a clearly planned operation of pro-Russian forces or Russian special services to discredit Ukrainian culture, the venerable Ukrainian literary prize named after Maksym Rylskyi and the high image of our book publishing house. There is a lot of pro-Russian trace in this story. This is Taisiya Yusupova herself with connections in the occupied territory. And Markushin with the reconstruction of Irpin for the terrorists’ assistant hench Nestor Shufrych, and the pro-Russian Briton Andrew Shepard, and the targeted discrediting of Ukrainian identity.