Rulings in Russian, millions during the war, and an “eternal court chairman”: what is known about the candidates from the Council of Judges

In June, the term of the Selection Commission, which selected members of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges (HQCJ), came to an end. It was the international experts on the commission who served as a safeguard against unscrupulous candidates joining the HQCJ.

Now the situation has changed. New members are to be delegated by the Council of Attorneys, the Council of Prosecutors, the Academy of Legal Sciences, and the Council of Judges of Ukraine (CoJ). The latter has repeatedly been noted for putting forward candidates with questionable reputations to such commissions.

So far, only two candidates have responded to the competition announced by the CoJ: Oleksandr Kotkov and Volodymyr Petrov. Here is what is known about them.

Oleksandr Kotkov is a judge of the Commercial Court of the City of Kyiv.

• In his practice, the candidate has issued court rulings in Russian.
• Starting with his 2020 declaration, the candidate has declared a 12-are plot of land belonging to his wife in Irpin, valued at just over 2,000 hryvnias (87 dollars at the exchange rate at the time). This plot, located near the “Irpin City” residential complex, is currently listed for sale at 80,000 dollars. The wife received the plot as a gift — presumably from her father, Kotkov’s father-in-law. This looks like a significant undervaluation of the asset.
• Kotkov’s father-in-law is Anatolii Bondar, a former member of the Vinnytsia Oblast Council and long-time head of the regional forestry management department. He is accused of a corruption offence. According to the investigation, he allegedly provided an unlawful benefit to the head of the Vinnytsia Oblast Military Administration and illegally transferred a forest plot for his son-in-law’s business. The indictment is already before the court, involving Part 2 of Article 364 (abuse of official position) and Part 3 of Article 369 (offering an unlawful benefit) of the Criminal Code.
• In 2020, the candidate ruled on the assets of the “Bilotserkivmaz” enterprise. He declared the results of an electronic auction unlawful and annulled them, and also invalidated the contract concluded as a result of that auction. Journalists at the time pointed out that the case had been reviewed extremely quickly and that the conclusions raised doubts about their legality. The Supreme Court later overturned this ruling.

Volodymyr Petrov is a judge of the Commercial Court of Odesa Oblast.

• Candidate Petrov has likewise issued rulings in Russian.
• In 2015-2017, the candidate used a car belonging to his current wife but did not disclose it in his declarations for those years.
• During the war, over 2023-2024, the judge’s wife saw an unexpected jump in income. Her earnings for this period amounted to 7 million hryvnias from trading in household goods and cars. Yet by the end of 2024, the wife’s “successful” sole proprietorship was closed.
• The law allows a person to chair a court for no more than two consecutive terms. However, this restriction does not apply to judge Petrov, who could be called the “eternal chairman” of the Commercial Court of Odesa Oblast. He has headed this court since 2014, with a brief interruption in 2023.
• In his declarations, the judge apparently understated the value of a house, an office, and a car.

The trend remains unchanged: the Council of Judges continues to put forward candidates with questionable reputations. We are waiting for the CoJ to name the other candidates for the Selection Commission so that we can analyse them as well.

We have previously written about the candidates from the bar and the Academy of Legal Sciences — and there, too, we found problems with integrity and professional standards.

Once again, we call for international experts to be returned to the Competition Commission; this can be done through draft law No. 13382. However, the political will to advance it is still lacking in parliament.