Nela Liskova totters along the corridor to her office, stiletto heels and a tight pencil skirt constraining her stride. With a delicate wave, she invites me to sit before a plate of carefully arranged biscuits.

She may not look like she keeps the company of gardeners or terrorists, but through the work of her new organization — in the Czech industrial city of Ostrava — she has been likened to a representative of both.

Liskova is the self-appointed “honorary consul” of the Russian-backed “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR), a rebel-held region of eastern Ukraine. The group she represents has been accused of torture, sexual violence and summary executions, which the UN has said may amount to crimes against humanity.

Nela Liskova sits in her new office in Ostrava decorated with a map of the unrecognized DNR, the Russian-backed rebels’ flag and a portrait of Czech President Milos Zeman. Photo by Amy Mackinnon.

Registered simply as a private association, the Ostrava center has no formal diplomatic status. The Czech Foreign Ministry does not recognize the DPR as a state and has distanced itself from the office. It was a spokeswoman for the ministry who compared it to a “gardeners’ club.”