Mykhaylo Poplavskyi was accused of sexual harassment

Mykhaylo Poplavskyi was accused of sexual harassment

The rector of the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts, singer, and producer Mykhaylo Poplavskyi has been accused of sexual harassment.

This was reported by DIVOCHE.MEDIA.

The incident of harassment was written on her Facebook page as part of the #NotSilent initiative by university graduate Vladyslava Korenna, noting that the situation occurred when she went to the office to ask for a place in the dormitory, "which she had the right to anyway."

The name of the person who harassed her is mentioned by the former student of KNUCA only in the comments. However, Ukrainian playwright and co-founder of the "Theater of Playwrights" Kateryna Penkova responds by saying, "even if you hadn’t said who it was, I already knew it was Poplavskyi."

"January, nine in the evening, the first lockdown, third year, and I’m 19. I’m in a car, and a security guard asks to turn on the ’airplane mode,’ and to the question ’why?’ responds: ’So no one searches for you.’ On the map, I see that we’re already somewhere outside Kyiv. We arrive, I’m led into a room that is set up like a guest room for girls, with a robe hanging on the hanger and a bathroom. We sit down at the table, I’m poured Hennessy, and told to drink on an empty stomach, I refuse and get cursed at," Korenna said.

According to the girl, after this, Poplavskyi laid out several phones in front of her and started calling subordinates, turning off the microphone and telling her "who, when, and how" he did and that "all the women who hold positions simply ’slept with’ him."

"I mix Hennessy with ’cola,’ hear that ’on people like me, only alcohol is wasted,’ brew tea, and am told to drink a buddy toast. When I lean back to avoid a kiss, there’s a stupor, blushing, and I’m cursed at again. Then there’s a need to play billiards ’for a kiss or $100.’ I reply once more that it won’t happen and I can only offer my last 500 hryvnias. But the game scheme is very simple - if the ball goes into the pocket, then a kiss. And so for about two hours. Thank God or my sharp tongue, you get tired with me very quickly because for one word I will respond with ten of mine. And without fear in my eyes, although holding the situation morally was hard. When I realized that I was starting to shake from stress so badly that I couldn’t handle myself, I asked to leave. On the bright side, a driver was called for me, and I was asked to call the next day to shoot university TikToks," she added.

Korenna noted that in the morning she was "terribly afraid" that she would be expelled from the university if she did not call, so she fulfilled the request, saying she was sick and did not want to infect anyone.

At the same time, the graduate from KNUCA claims that she was very lucky as "there were girls with whom this happened at 17, and it was not so modest."

"Well, on the bright side - they didn’t take me to the woods, although they could have. So I studied my remaining year and a half and never wanted to remember my student years again," she concluded.

In addition, in the comments under the post, another KNUCA graduate, Yuliya Popova, shared that she was also invited to "have some cognac after ten in the evening" when she asked to retake an exam.

"I didn’t go anywhere, but I was allowed to retake, because, quoting, ’I love blondes,’" she added.