A person died in Iryna Borodkinaʼs beauty salon in Moldova. She now enlarges peopleʼs breasts and buttocks in Pechersk. The market for such services in Ukraine is poorly controlled and thatʼs the problem

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On the morning of January 30, 2025, the 35-year-old owner of the “Mona Lisa Boutique” clothing store in Chisinau Lyubov Babutska spent the morning at a beauty salon. There, she was supposed to have injections in her neck and chin, as well as have her buttocks enlarged with fillers under general anesthesia.

The procedure was performed at the “Dr. Serebrova Clinic”, a salon located in an apartment on the first floor of a residential building in the center of the Moldovan capital. The owner of the establishment was Odesa native Iryna Borodkina. Administrator Alina Gogua, nurse Natalia Sakalyuk, anesthesiologist Kateryna Manyuk, and Iryna Borodkina were in the room that day.

Later, during the trial, the anesthesiologist and administrator said that it was Borodkina who “performed the procedures” on the patient.

Lyubov Babutska.

Monalisa Boutique

Iryna Borodkina.

What happened after the procedures is known from the words of Roman Babutsky, Lyubovʼs husband.

She asked her husband to pick her up at one oʼclock in the afternoon. Then all the procedures should have been completed. Babutsky arrived in the city center at 1:15 PM, but he did not know the exact address of the salon and could not find it for a long time. He called his wife, but she did not answer.

"Soon an ambulance rushed past me at high speed. I got nervous, got out of the car and started looking for the clinic. When I found it, I saw Manyuk and Gogua inside. Both were very nervous, there were drops of blood on their gowns," he said.

Babutsky asked them where his wife was. They told him that her heart had stopped and she had been taken to the hospital. And no one answered his calls, because she was being resuscitated all this time.

Already at the Chisinau Institute of Emergency Medical Care, Roman was told that his wife had been taken without signs of life. After that, he returned to the salon, called the police, and stopped the anesthesiologist who was trying to leave.

Babutsky told all this on February 5 during his first speech after his wifeʼs death, so this is information from his own words. Together with lawyer Oksana Ivanova, he decided to make the case public, because he was afraid that they would want to hide its details.

"When I returned to the salon, everything was perfectly clean. They told me that everything was covered in blood, that Lyuba was covered in blood. And when we came back, we found only a few drops of blood. Apparently, they didnʼt notice them or didnʼt have time to wipe them off," Babutsky said in the speech.

The call to emergency services is confirmed by Moldovan doctors. According to the National Center for Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Care of Moldova, the call came in at 1:39 PM — a 35-year-old woman was unconscious and not breathing. The team arrived in 8 minutes, the patient was recorded in cardiorespiratory arrest. The doctors continued resuscitation, which, according to them, had already been started by the salon staff, and took the woman to the Institute of Emergency Medical Care.

However, it was too late. The case was documented by the police. Moldovan law enforcement agencies began investigating the circumstances of the death.

Iryna Borodkina left Moldova for Ukraine at around 4 PM that day.

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On February 26, 2025, Moldovan investigators received the results of a forensic medical examination. According to its conclusion, Lyubov Babutska died of embolism (a condition when a blood vessel is suddenly blocked by a clot or foreign substance).

In a conversation with Babel, Roman Babutsky confirmed that the law enforcement officers had told him the same cause of death. He also believes that the salon staff made mistakes when trying to resuscitate Lyubov.

"The filler [for the buttocks] was injected into a blood vessel and it got into the bloodstream. The anesthesia only made the situation worse. My wife was left with no chance of survival," he said.

After that, the Chisinau court chose a preventive measure in the form of arrest for Iryna Borodkina. On March 7, 2025, as Babel was informed by the General Inspectorate of Police of the Republic of Moldova, Borodkina was put on the international wanted list through Interpol, so that she could be detained and extradited.

Anesthesiologist Kateryna Manyuk and nurse Natalia Sakalyuk are accused of illegal medical activities. Their case has already been transferred to court, both are prohibited from leaving Moldova. Iryna Borodkinaʼs materials have been collected in a separate case, and the court is currently examining the evidence of the prosecution.

Babel was unable to find any criminal proceedings against Iryna Borodkina in Ukraine. She does not appear in the Unified Register of Court Decisions. In response to our request, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine informed us that no documents relating to Iryna Borodkina are registered in their system.

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To understand how exactly the injections could have led to the embolism and whether the salon staff had the right to perform such interventions, we turned to lawyer Yevhen Skurativsky from the “Miller” law firm and a Ukrainian dermatological surgeon who agreed to comment on the situation anonymously.

According to her, she does not want to publicly comment on the actions of a specific person due to professional and reputational risks, but considers it important to explain what safety rules apply in injectable cosmetology. (Data on the interlocutorʼs medical education and the activities of her clinic are at the disposal of Babel.)

“Embolism is when fat, a particle of a drug, or air enters the lumen of a vessel. This mass moves with the bloodstream and can block the pulmonary artery. This is life-threatening. Large vessels pass through the buttocks and neck, so the technique of administering the drug is of critical importance,” explains the doctor.

«Babel'»

«Babel'»

In most cases, fillers are injected under local anesthesia or light sedation. General anesthesia is usually used during full surgical operations, in a sterile operating room and with full anesthesia control.

The disadvantage of general anesthesia is that the patient does not feel the first symptoms of complications. In case of embolism, these can be sudden shortness of breath, chest pain or severe weakness. If a person is unconscious, it is impossible to notice it in time. And in such conditions, every second is important.

Lawyer Yevhen Skurativsky specializes in medical issues. He assessed the situation based on open sources: publications of Moldovan investigations, statements from the deceasedʼs family, information about the equipment and the nature of the interventions.

Without claiming to be a final medical opinion, he notes that the procedure did not take place in a licensed operating room, and the patient was injected with fillers under general anesthesia. This already indicates an increased risk — invasive interventions with anesthesia should be carried out in conditions where there is full anesthesia control and resuscitation equipment.

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After the death of Lyubov Babutska, Moldova began to investigate who performed the procedures and on what grounds. It turned out that officially “Dr. Serebrova Clinic” is not a medical institution, but a beauty salon.

The National Agency for Public Health of Moldova found that the salon had a permit only to provide basic cosmetic services. Borodkina herself officially worked there not as a cosmetologist or plastic surgeon, as she presented herself on social networks, but as an administrative director.

Iryna Borodkina received her education as a nurse and general practitioner in Ukraine in 2021, and is listed in Ukrainian state registers with this qualification. There is no information in open sources about her specialization in plastic surgery or internship in a surgical profile.

We have been trying to ask Iryna Borodkina questions related to her professional activities in various ways since February 23. At the time of publication, she had not responded.

According to Moldovan investigative media outlet RISE Moldova, as early as early 2022, Iryna Borodkina was posing as a plastic surgeon on social media and posting videos of herself performing complex procedures. After the full-scale invasion began, she and her husband left Ukraine for Moldova. And in the same 2022, a criminal case was opened against her in Moldova.

On May 12, Iryna Borodkina was detained at customs with more than 600 boxes of various medicines worth almost 1.6 million lei (approximately $90 000). She was carrying them in suitcases without certificates of origin and receipts.

Investigators determined that she had purchased these medicines from a private individual without a pharmaceutical license. Initially, law enforcement officers opened a criminal case for smuggling.

Later, it was reclassified as an administrative case and closed because the statute of limitations had expired. Borodkina herself told RISE Moldova that the drugs were allegedly intended for humanitarian aid to people affected by the war in Ukraine.

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After the death of Lyubov Babutska, Iryna Borodkina left for Ukraine, but did not change her profile of activity. At least since May 2025 and until now she has been working in a private medical institution in Kyiv, in the Pechersky district. Iryna Borodkina founded LLC "GL CLINIC" in 2022. And on April 18, 2025, the company changed its name to LLC "AESTE MEDCENTER".

Later, among the owners appeared Indian citizen Priya Gupta, who owns 70% of the corporate rights to the company. In other words, it is she who formally has a decisive influence on the business. Another 30% belong to Olena Myaskovsky, the new head of the medical center.

Lawyer Yevhen Skurativsky says that such changes can have different explanations.

"Sometimes it really is the attraction of a foreign partner or investor. In some cases, shares are transferred to another person to complicate possible searches, seizures of property, or claims to assets," he explains.

According to the registry, Borodkina is no longer a beneficiary of the company. But she represents the clinic on social media, advertises its services and (judging by her own posts) performs procedures. Among the contacts of the “Aeste Clinic” account on Instagram, an email address starting with “irinaborodkina” is listed.

Borodkina has changed the nickname of her personal Instagram account 12 times, according to social network data. The account is currently called lavreni_med.

In her account, Borodkina calls herself a “Dubai plastic surgeon”. In her description, she notes that she performs mammoplasty, HD sports liposuction, works with “Morpheus8” and “Endolift” devices, and also performs proprietary procedures for buttock augmentation with a “liquid implant”. On her account, she regularly posts photos and videos of invasive procedures, as well as results before and after operations.

The “Morpheus8” device, which Iryna Borodkina works with, deserves special attention. It is not just a cosmetic device for regular skin care, but a medical device for microneedle radiofrequency lifting.

This is how it is classified in the manufacturerʼs technical documentation and in the registers of medical devices, explains Yevhen Skurativsky. If the equipment is registered as a medical device and involves a violation of the integrity of the skin, its use is regulated by medical legislation.

Working in the subcutaneous layers requires knowledge of anatomy, including the exact location of blood vessels, nerves, and lymph nodes, as well as adherence to the rules of asepsis and antiseptics. Such interventions are considered medical services and are prescribed in the legislation.

Lawyer Yevhen Skuratovsky explains that in order to perform invasive surgical procedures. In particular, to introduce fillers, botulinum toxin, or to work with devices that disrupt the deep layers of the skin (such as “Morpheus8”), a full higher medical education, internship, and specialization in surgery are required.

This is especially true for interventions under general anesthesia. There is no information in open sources about Iryna Borodkina’s acquisition of such specialization.

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The death of a patient in Chisinau due to the actions of doctors with unconfirmed qualifications is not an isolated case. In Ukraine, in recent years, law enforcement agencies have also opened criminal proceedings after cosmetic procedures.

Two years ago, a woman died in Kharkiv from acute poisoning and an overdose of anesthetic for a cosmetic procedure. The forensic medical examination established acute poisoning with anesthetic, and the cosmetologist was suspected of involuntary manslaughter.

Another case occurred in Chernihiv quite recently, on February 23 of this year. After cosmetic surgery in one of the cityʼs private clinics, a 42-year-old woman was taken to the hospital in an unconscious state, where she later died. The police have opened a criminal case for improper performance of professional duties by a medical professional. The pre-trial investigation is ongoing.

A dermatological surgeon, whom we spoke with on condition of anonymity, says that formally this area is regulated by law, but in practice the control works poorly. There are many people on the Ukrainian market who work with drugs without proper medical education:

“On social networks, anyone can create a page and write ʼdoctorʼ in the description. You can check education through open registries, but patients rarely do this. The state cannot guarantee that everyone who gives injections has medical training. There are cases when people without specialized education start working after taking courses. They could have done manicures, been trained in injections, and seen patients before. The difference between a doctor and a person without education is not that a doctor does not have complications. Complications are always possible. The difference is that a doctor knows how to recognize them and what to do in the first minutes,” she says.

To check a doctorʼs qualifications, you can visit the portal of the Unified State Electronic Database on Education, where you can confirm the authenticity of higher education by surname, first name, patronymic and diploma series. If a specialist is in private practice, his data must be in the Register of Medical Licenses of the Ministry of Health.

This publication was produced as part of the “Seizing Synergies” project, implemented by n-ost and supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the BMZ.