Nataliya Nikonorova

Nikonorova was born on 28 September 1984, in Donetsk. In 2001, she graduated from High School No. 115 in Donetsk and entered the International Solomon University in Kiev. In 2005, she moved to the Faculty of Law of the Kiev National Economic University, graduating in 2006.[1]

From 2006 to 2012, Nikonorova worked as an assistant to Svyatoslav Piskun and Hennadiy Moskal, members of the Ukrainian Parliament. During this period, she attended the graduate school of the Koretsky KIHP, entering the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management in 2012.[1]

During the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, Nikonorova backed the creation of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) as an independent state, and was appointed head of the legal department of the republic's newly created parliament.[1]

In 2016, Nikonorova was appointed DPR's Minister of Foreign Affairs, with an additional role of Head of the Interdepartmental Committee for the Accreditation of Humanitarian Missions later added on. Since 2018, she has also been the permanent representative of the DPR in the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, aimed at implementing the solving of the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Her position was abolished with the region's incorporation into Russia in 2022, and DPR Head Denis Pushilin subsequently appointed her as Donetsk's co-representative at the Federation Council.[2]

Her brother Aleksey Yuryevich Nikonorov was also a lawyer working for the DPR's parliament and was involved as its representative at the Minsk Accords negotiations.[1] Meanwhile, her mother has been involved in the electoral campaign of Donetsk Metallurgical Plant President Alexander Ryzhenkov to be elected to the Verkhovna Rada, and has worked alongside Tamara Yegorenko, Chair of the Lenin District Executive Committee of Donetsk, as well as the Rinat Akhmetov-linked Metinvest General Director Yuriy Ryzhenkov.[3][4][5][6][7]