⚠️ Violation Context

👤 Biography & Current Position

Andrii Kulibaba#

Ukrainian Lawyer, Civic Activist, Co-Coordinator of the Public Integrity Council Second Composition, Military Serviceman and Veteran

Andrii Kulibaba (Кулібаба Андрій Юрійович) is a Ukrainian lawyer and civic activist who served as a full member and co-coordinator of the second composition of the Public Integrity Council (PIC / ГРД) from December 17, 2018 to August 11, 2020, delegated by the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL). Together with Mykhailo Zhernakov, he co-led the Council throughout the majority of its operative term.

He is one of the most professionally multifaceted figures in this site’s documentation series: a lawyer with experience across civil society, commercial practice, and municipal governance; co-coordinator of the second PIC composition; founder of the civic organization “МІНЗМІН”; Kyiv City Council candidate; doctoral student; subsequently a soldier in Ukraine’s war against Russian aggression; and now a member of the Kyiv City Military Administration. His delegating organization, CCL, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.

He is not among the 15 members who voted on December 16, 2020 — having resigned four months before that date.

Biography and Career#

Kulibaba holds legal education from three institutions: Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (NaUKMA), the Yaroslav Mudry National Law University in Kharkiv, and the Open University of Reforms. During his PIC tenure he was also enrolled as a PhD candidate at Sumy State University.

His professional background spans civil society (CCL), commercial legal practice (MORIS law firm), and public governance (Kyiv City Council). In August 2019 — midway through his PIC term — he co-founded and became head of ГО “МІНЗМІН,” a new civic organization registered in Kyiv.

Following the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, he volunteered for military service and served in the “Chornyi Lis” unit — the 15th Artillery Reconnaissance Brigade, described as the only Ukrainian armed forces unit specifically tasked with artillery reconnaissance. After completing his combat service, he joined the Kyiv City Military Administration in 2025, working on issues related to military servicemembers, veterans, and urban development.

Role in the Public Integrity Council (December 2018 – August 2020)#

Co-Coordinator of the Second Composition#

Kulibaba was elected co-coordinator of the second composition alongside Zhernakov — making the two of them jointly responsible for the Council’s organizational leadership throughout its term. This was the most structurally senior role in the PIC, involving coordination of assessment procedures, public communications, and internal decision-making.

During the active assessment period (early 2019 through mid-2020), the PIC applied integrity criteria that treated post-2014 Crimea-related judicial conduct as grounds for negative conclusions. As co-coordinator, Kulibaba’s institutional role was not merely to vote on individual cases but to co-lead the body whose overall methodology embedded this approach.

Early Resignation#

Kulibaba resigned from the second composition on August 11, 2020 — four months before the composition’s scheduled end on December 17, 2020, and four months before the December 16, 2020 vote formally adopting the Crimea-related Indicators. The reasons for his early departure are not documented in publicly available sources.

His resignation preceded the composition’s most symbolically significant institutional act. This distinguishes his individual documented responsibility from members who participated in the December 16, 2020 named vote — while his co-coordinator role during the preceding 20 months placed him at the center of the PIC’s substantive application of Crimea-related criteria throughout that period.

The CCL Connection#

Kulibaba was delegated by the Center for Civil Liberties — an organization whose mission centers on human rights protection and documentation of Russian aggression. CCL was founded by Oleksandra Matviichuk and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 for its documentation of Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

This institutional connection does not resolve the analytical tension inherent in the PIC’s Crimea-related methodology — the same tension documented in detail in Denys Savchenko’s profile (KrymSOS). Both CCL and KrymSOS are organizations premised on Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory being illegal and harmful; both delegated representatives to a council that applied criteria treating that occupation as an operative institutional premise. The CCL’s post-2022 Nobel recognition does not retroactively alter the institutional character of the PIC methodology in 2018–2020.

Third PIC Composition (2023–present)#

Kulibaba was elected to the third PIC composition in August 2023 — this time delegated through the DEJURE Foundation (not CCL), and again as coordinator. His transition to DEJURE affiliation by 2023 reflects a broader trajectory visible in this documentation series: the consolidation of DEJURE’s influence across successive PIC compositions, which had begun with Zhernakov’s leadership of the second composition.

His active participation in the third composition has been substantially limited by his concurrent military service — the official GRD page describes him as a current serviceman. Following his discharge and transition to the Kyiv City Military Administration, the extent of his resumed PIC engagement is not fully documented in public sources.

Summary#

Andrii Kulibaba’s profile is distinctive in this documentation series for several reasons: he occupied the highest procedural position in the second composition (co-coordinator) while serving for 20 of its 24 months; he was delegated by an organization (CCL) that went on to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for its anti-occupation human rights work; and he subsequently served in Ukraine’s military and civic administration. His individual institutional record in relation to the Crimea-related methodology is substantial by virtue of his co-leadership role, even though he departed before the December 16, 2020 vote and was not among its 15 named participants.

ℹ️ What Else We Know

📅 Career Timeline

📋 Documented Instances