Blyzniuk Ihor Volodymyrovych: PIC Cites Cohabitant's Parents' Trips to Occupied Crimea as Grounds for Deliberate Concealment Finding

What Happened#

On 18 September 2026, the Public Integrity Council approved a conclusion of non-compliance with integrity and professional ethics criteria for Ihor Volodymyrovych Blyzniuk, a candidate for a position as a judge of the Court of Appeal, by a vote of 11 of the 18 council members.

Among the factual bases for the conclusion, the PIC recorded the following Crimea-related travel: the mother of the person cohabiting with the candidate (who is not his spouse) departed through the temporary checkpoint at the administrative border of Ukraine at Kalanchak on 19 July 2019 and returned through the same checkpoint on 30 July 2019. The father of that same person made two separate visits to temporarily occupied Crimea: 6–16 September 2018, and 29 August – 7 September 2019, by the same route. These crossings were recorded in the state integrated interdepartmental information system (ARKAN).

The PIC’s written question to the candidate asked whether he, members of his family, or close persons had made trips to the Russian Federation, Belarus, or the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine after 2014, requesting dates, duration, and purpose. The candidate replied: “After the start in 2014 of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, I did not make trips to the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus, or the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. I am also not aware of such trips by members of my family or close persons.” The PIC found that this answer was knowingly false, given that border-crossing records confirmed travel by the candidate’s own parents to Belarus and by the cohabitant’s parents to both Belarus and occupied Crimea.

The PIC concluded that the candidate “deliberately, with the aim of concealing information about visiting a state that facilitates armed aggression of the RF against Ukraine, and a temporarily occupied territory” had provided knowingly false information, characterising this as evidence of dishonesty and an attempt to mislead both the PIC and the High Qualifications Commission of Judges. The Crimea travel formed part of a compound finding under the honesty indicator, grouped together with Belarus travel, and the PIC treated the denial of all such travel as a single act of deliberate concealment. The conclusion also addressed multiple separate declaration deficiencies and an unexplained asset gap of approximately 3.5 million hryvnias in 2024.

Anastasiia Borema voted in favour of the conclusion, joining the ten other participating members who found that the candidate’s denial of the cohabitant’s parents’ crossings of the Kalanchak administrative boundary checkpoint into occupied Crimea constituted deliberate concealment warranting a negative integrity finding.

The Crimea Connection#

The mother of the person cohabiting with the candidate visited the temporarily occupied Crimea: she left on 19.07.2019 through the temporary checkpoint at the administrative border of Ukraine at Kalanchak and returned to the controlled territory on 30.07.2019 through the same checkpoint. The father of the person cohabiting with the candidate visited the temporarily occupied Crimea twice… The candidate answered: ‘…I am not aware of such trips by members of my family or close persons.’ Thus, the candidate, deliberately, with the aim of concealing information about… the temporarily occupied territory… provided knowingly false information.

The PIC treats post-2014 travel to occupied Crimea through the administrative boundary checkpoint as an integrity risk requiring mandatory disclosure alongside travel to Russia and Belarus, thereby operationally equating Crimea with foreign/enemy territory and implicitly recognising Russian jurisdiction over the peninsula.