The President appointed two members of the High Council of Justice
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed decrees appointing two members of the High Council of Justice (HCJ) — Maksym Saviuk and Vitalii Makhinchuk. This decision had been long-awaited, as the President had delayed the appointment of candidates who had already been vetted and recommended by the Ethics Council.
Notably, the appointments took place on the very same day that Parliament failed to vote for candidates for two vacant positions in the Constitutional Court. Such timing appears to be an attempt to balance the political narrative — to show international partners some progress in the justice sector despite the government’s unwillingness to appoint independent candidates to the Constitutional Court and fulfil Ukraine’s EU integration commitments.
Those appointed to the HCJ are:
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Maksym Saviuk — Senior Detective at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).
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Vitalii Makhinchuk — lawyer, scholar, and businessman. His family has declared an income of approximately 67 million UAH over the past 7 years. He and his wife currently own a substantial amount of real estate valued at over 20 million UAH.
Why is this appointment important?
The HCJ now has 17 of its required 21 members. The replenishment of the Council will make it possible to:
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Strengthen the HCJ’s capacity to review disciplinary complaints;
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Finally resolve disciplinary cases against judges of the District Administrative Court of Kyiv — Yevhen Ablov, Volodymyr Keleberda, and several others, which had been stalled due to a lack of quorum;
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Make decisions on appointing judges to local and appellate courts.
Two positions from the Congress of Judges and two from the Congress of Attorneys remain vacant. The judges’ quota competition has been relaunched due to a shortage of decent candidates, while the leadership of the bar has deliberately blocked even the announcement of a competition for over three years. As a result, police have opened a criminal investigation under Article 351-2 of the Criminal Code — obstruction of the HCJ’s activities.
We hope that the new members of the HCJ will work to cleanse the judiciary of low-integrity judges and appoint worthy candidates to vacant judicial positions.
