You're reading: Gaddafi’s Ukrainian nurse planning to return home, says daughter

Halyna Kolotnytska, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's personal nurse from Ukraine, plans to return home soon, the Ukrainian newspaper Segodnya reported with a reference to Kolotnytska's daughter Tetiana.

"Mom called yesterday," Tetiana Kolotnytska said. "She told us what is going on in Tripoli now. Gunfire and fights are under way – in other words, everything that is being shown in news programs. Her voice was calm, and she asked us not to worry and said she would be at home soon. She said, thank God, that everything is okay with her health," she said.

The daughter did not know whether Kolotnytska was waiting for being paid her salary, just as dozens of other foreign medical specialists working in Libya are doing, or whether there was another reason why she has still not returned home. Tetiana Kolotnytska also did not know whether her mother was near Gaddafi at the moment of the conversation.

Kolotnytska left for Libya nine years ago. She first worked at a local hospital and then joined Gaddafi’s personal medical service.

"Other Ukrainian women are also working as his nurses. Mom is one of them. For some reason, he does not trust Libyans in this respect," Tetiana said.

The newspaper said Gaddafi reportedly had four nurses from Ukraine.

As is believed by many in Libya and outside it, Kolotnytska has become Gaddafi’s confidant during her work in that country. Some media have written that she has accompanied Gaddafi virtually everywhere until recently, from which they concluded that she had much influence on the Libyan leader.

Riots in Libya, whose participants are demanding Gaddafi’s resignation, have lasted for nearly two weeks. Gaddafi reportedly ordered troops and mercenaries from a number of African countries to suppress the uprising using armored vehicles and warplanes. About 1,000 people have been said to have died in the bloodshed.