Scandal as nude pictures emerge of 24-year-old minister in charge of integrating Ukraine into the EU

UKRAINE’s bid to join the EU took a new twist today when semi-naked pictures of the country's deputy interior minister in charge of European integration were revealed.

British educated  Anastasia Deeva, 24, was already under fierce attack in Kiev for being too young for the job, and to have been appointed without proper vetting – which her boss dismissed as "bigotry" and "ageist".

But now Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has been forced to defend the married minister's topless photographs, claiming critics are "asexual" or obsessed by moralising.

He said her pictures were "private" and taken when she was a student – a time when she also worked as an aide to various Ukrainian MPs.

Despite this, the revealing photos remained on her social media after her appointment as one of the key figures in the Ukrainian government's drive to integrate with the EU.

A source in the ministry denied that she was in a relationship with her boss after a flurry of social media speculation.

"That she is having an affair with Avakov – it's all nonsense," said the source.

Ukraine's deputy speaker Irina Gerashchenko said: "The question is not about the nude photos.

"People can take any pictures they like and the photographs cannot be the basis for any appointment or dismissal.

"Nor is the question about hypocrisy, which, like sexism, we really should overcome together.

"The question is about violation of procedures."

She claimed the deputy minister was appointed "without any competition" and her official CV contains "wrong data".

Journalist Konstantin Stogny wrote: "I'm terribly sorry...but is this really the next head of the law enforcement agency (Interior Ministry) in Ukraine?

"I'm not trying to moralise on what is bad or good. I'm just trying to understand the trends."

Anastasia has also faced criticism for her expensive taste in Western clothes brands.

Akavov hit back saying that in Soviet times the position would have been held by a "real monster - and she is just a girl."

She had a "high capacity for work and communication skills", an excellent Masters degree and was fluent in English and French, he said.

Akavov claimed Anastasia was facing attack because of her young age, adding that her appointment  had been approved by the Cabinet.

"Photo albums, thrown onto the internet with such an effect, feed low feelings," he said.

"Has a student no right to private photos?

"It is bigotry - or are you incorporeal or asexual, or moralising on her bright clothes and bare lines?"

Anastasia spent her childhood attending a school in "a small town near Manchester", according to her social media profile.

She said: "The first time I earned money, when I was eight years old, was when our Ukrainian delegation in the UK collected money to build a house for street children."

She later switched to study in Kiev, doubling up as a political aide to MPs for the party headed by toppled pro-Russian dictator Viktor Yanukovych.

Her first official work was when she was 18, when she became an aid to a deputy.

Her husband, Grogory Deev, 33 - co-owner of an advertising agency - has not commented on the images.

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