The appointment of a Ukrainian judge who visited Russia and occupied Crimea during Moscow's war against Ukraine has sparked criticism from the head of the country’s main judicial watchdog.
The High Council of Justice, Ukraine's top judicial governing body, appointed Oleksandra Shulika as a judge of Kirovohrad Oblast's Onufriivka District Court on Jan. 14.
The decision highlights the continued presence of officials with ties to Russia in the Ukrainian government. While some officials with Russian passports and other links to Russia have been fired, others remain in their positions.
Ukraine has a constitutional ban on judges and other officials with foreign passports.
Shulika went to Crimea in 2014 after its illegal annexation by Russia and visited Russia several times from 2015 to 2019.
"This is absolutely unacceptable," Mykhailo Zhernakov, executive director of the judicial watchdog the Dejure Foundation, wrote in a post on Facebook.
“Not only do they help representatives of the judicial mafia remain in their positions but also allow sympathizers of Russia to take vacant positions in the judicial system,” he said.
Ukraine's judiciary is still notoriously corrupt despite repeated attempts to reform it, according to watchdogs. Some Ukrainian judges have routinely obstructed justice and blocked reforms.
“How do you like this 'reformed' body? And what do you think — will they let us into the EU with this kind of system?"
The High Council of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.
Zhernakov said the appointment of judges who visited Russia and the occupied territories during the war violates the High Council of Justice's own guidelines.
This is not the first scandal around a judge with ties to Russia.
Bohdan Lvov, a former deputy chairman of the Supreme Court, received Russian citizenship in 1999 and still had a valid Russian passport, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Schemes investigation project reported in 2022.
Schemes cited official information from Russia’s Federal Tax Service and leaked documents from Russia’s official passport database.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) later confirmed that Lvov had Russian citizenship.
Vsevolod Knyazev, then head of the Supreme Court, fired Lvov in October 2022 due to a constitutional ban on judges having foreign citizenship.
The Kyiv District Administrative Court issued a ruling in January 2024 to reinstate Lvov as a Supreme Court judge. The court claimed that there was not enough proof of Lvov’s Russian citizenship.
In June 2024, an appellate court reversed the ruling and rejected Lvov's lawsuit for reinstatement.
Oleg Sukhov
