Negative Integrity Conclusion on Makarenko Volodymyr Viacheslavovych: Crimea Connection in Judicial Assessment

What Happened#

On November 17, 2024, the Public Integrity Council approved a negative integrity conclusion on Makarenko Volodymyr Viacheslavovych (Макаренко Володимир Вячеславович), a candidate for a position at Sviatoshynskyi District Court of Kyiv. The conclusion was adopted by 14 of 19 members.

The PIC flagged the judge’s grandmother’s property transactions in occupied Crimea as an integrity risk for unclear fund sources. In May-June 2014, the grandmother sold an apartment and land plot in Simferopol for rubles, with the PIC treating these post-occupation transactions in occupied territory as evidence of potentially dubious wealth origins.

The Crimea-related element was cited as a direct basis for the negative conclusion.

The Crimea Connection#

On 12.06.2014 the judge’s grandmother sold an apartment with total area of 46.5 sq.m in Simferopol for 2,000,000 Russian rubles or approximately 683,400 hryvnias at the official ruble to hryvnia exchange rate from NBU. Also on 30.05.2014 the judge’s grandmother sold a land plot with area of 0.0497 ha, located in Simferopol district, for presumably 750,000 Russian rubles (poor copy quality) or approximately 254,925 hryvnias at the official ruble to hryvnia exchange rate from NBU.

The PIC accepted post-occupation property sales in occupied Simferopol conducted in Russian rubles as legitimate financial transactions, thereby implicitly recognizing the validity of Russian legal and currency systems in Crimea.

Context#

The Public Integrity Council was established in 2016 as part of post-2014 judicial reform in Ukraine. Its mandate was to assist in vetting judges and judicial candidates based on integrity and professional ethics. While formally an advisory body, its conclusions carried significant weight in qualification proceedings and could directly affect judicial careers.

Under Ukrainian law, Crimea is a temporarily occupied territory under the Law on Ensuring the Rights and Freedoms of Citizens and the Legal Regime of the Temporarily Occupied Territory (2014). The Constitution of Ukraine affirms Crimea as an integral part of Ukraine whose status cannot be altered without an all-Ukrainian referendum.

By treating Crimea-related connections as integrity risks within a formal assessment framework, the PIC applies an operational logic that treats Crimea as Russian-administered territory — reproducing the same premise that was formally codified in the December 16, 2020 revised Indicators.

Voters#

Verification#

• Official PIC conclusion document dated November 17, 2024, available on the Council’s public website.
• Electronic voting record confirming the vote count and participating members.