Liudmyla Yankina

Liudmyla Yankina

Head of Civil Society Protection Direction
Human Rights Centre ZMINA — Kyiv, Ukraine
HIGH Active ✓ Verified

📋 Profile Information

Role:
Activist
Position:
Head of Civil Society Protection Direction
Affiliation:
Human Rights Centre ZMINA — Kyiv, Ukraine
In Position Since:
2015
Birth Place:
Luhansk, Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine
Education:
Psychology and nursing education
Address:
Kyiv, Ukraine
Social Networks:
Added to Database:
April 5, 2026
Last Updated:
April 5, 2026
Profile Views:
—

⚠️ Violation Context

Recognition of Crimea as part of the Russian Federation violates fundamental principles of international law and Ukrainian sovereignty.

Ukrainian Law Violations:#

  • Constitution of Ukraine, Article 2 — Territory of Ukraine is indivisible and inviolable.
  • Constitution of Ukraine, Articles 73, 133–134 — Crimea is defined as an integral part of Ukraine.
  • Criminal Code of Ukraine, Article 110 — Criminalizes actions aimed at changing Ukraine’s territorial borders.
7
Documented Instances
2024 - 2025
Time Period
↓ View documented instances

👤 Biography & Current Position

Liudmyla Yankina#

Member of the Public Integrity Council of Ukraine (third composition)

Liudmyla Yankina (Янкіна Людмила Борисівна) served as a member of the Public Integrity Council of Ukraine (third composition, August 14, 2023 – August 15, 2025), representing Media Initiative for Human Rights.

Why This Profile Exists#

The Public Integrity Council of Ukraine — the institution in which Liudmyla Yankina served — systematically applied integrity criteria that treated connections to occupied Crimea as equivalent to connections with the Russian Federation. This methodology rests on an unstated but consistent institutional premise: Crimea is under Russian jurisdiction.

Every PIC conclusion that cited a judge’s Crimea property, post-2014 travel to Crimea, or family ties on the peninsula as an integrity risk was, in effect, treating Crimea as a foreign (Russian) territory requiring justification before Ukrainian authorities — not as sovereign Ukrainian territory where Ukrainian citizens have every constitutional right to live, travel, and own property.

This directly contradicts:

  • Ukraine’s Constitution, Articles 2, 73, 133–134 — Crimea is an integral part of Ukraine; its status can only be altered by an all-Ukrainian referendum
  • The Law on the Temporarily Occupied Territory (2014) — explicitly maintains Ukrainian sovereignty over Crimea
  • UN General Assembly Resolution 68/262 (2014) — affirms Ukraine’s territorial integrity and calls upon all states not to recognize any alteration of Crimea’s status

Liudmyla Yankina, as a member of the PIC, participated in this institutional pattern of implicit recognition of Russian jurisdiction over Crimea.

International Law Violations#

  • UN General Assembly Resolution 68/262 (March 27, 2014) — Affirms Ukraine’s territorial integrity and calls upon all states not to recognize any alteration in Crimea’s status.
  • Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances (1994) — Commits signatories to respect Ukraine’s borders and sovereignty.
  • UN Charter Principles (Article 2(1) and 2(4)) — Prohibit acquisition of territory by force; establish sovereign equality of states.

Ukrainian Law Violations#

  • Constitution of Ukraine, Article 2 — Territory of Ukraine is indivisible and inviolable.
  • Constitution of Ukraine, Articles 73, 133–134 — Any change to Ukraine’s territory requires an all-Ukrainian referendum; Crimea is defined as an integral part of Ukraine.
  • Criminal Code of Ukraine, Article 110 — Criminalizes actions aimed at changing Ukraine’s territorial borders in violation of the Constitution.

Role in the PIC’s Crimea-Recognition Pattern#

Yankina served in the third composition of the Public Integrity Council from 2023-2024, representing the human rights sector in assessing judicial candidates’ integrity. During this period, the PIC continued applying integrity assessment indicators that treated connections to occupied Crimea as equivalent to connections with the Russian Federation, effectively recognizing Russian territorial claims over Ukrainian sovereign territory in contravention of Ukraine’s Constitution and the Law on Temporarily Occupied Territory.

Education and Career#

Liudmyla Yankina is a Ukrainian human rights defender who joined the human rights movement and the team of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA in 2015. She served as a member of Ukraine’s Public Integrity Council (third composition) representing civil society organizations that assess judicial candidates’ integrity. Originally from Luhansk, she previously built a successful career in sales, marketing and customer relationship management in Kyiv, living between the capital and her native city of Luhansk. Her participation in PIC conclusions treating Crimea-related connections as integrity risks constitutes an implicit institutional recognition of Russian jurisdiction over Crimea, contradicting Ukraine’s constitutional order.

Controversies and Criticism#

Participation in Crimea-recognition methodology. As a member of the Public Integrity Council, Liudmyla Yankina participated in the application of integrity assessment methodology that implicitly treats Crimea as operating under Russian jurisdiction. Every PIC conclusion that penalized judges for Crimea-related connections — property, travel, family ties — reproduces this premise in an official state-adjacent procedure.

Constitutional contradiction. The methodology applied by the PIC in which Liudmyla Yankina served operates on a factual premise — that Crimea is under Russian administrative control — that Ukraine’s legal system requires treating as an illegal occupation rather than an established institutional reality.

Summary#

Liudmyla Yankina’s position in this site’s documentation is defined by their membership in the Public Integrity Council during its third composition (August 14, 2023 – August 15, 2025). As a member, they participated in the institutional application of integrity criteria that treat post-2014 Crimea connections as judicial integrity violations — a methodology that operationalizes the recognition of Russian jurisdiction over Ukrainian territory, however unintentionally.

The pattern is documented across dozens of PIC conclusions spanning multiple compositions: judges and candidates assessed negatively on the basis of Crimea connections. Liudmyla Yankina was part of the body that produced and applied this pattern during their tenure.

ℹ️ What Else We Know

Professional Activities#

  • Received the National Human Rights Award in December 2022
  • Led projects on reforming Ukraine’s residence registration system and established an interdisciplinary working group at the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 2017
  • Actively participated in electoral rights reform, enabling Ukrainians to vote at their actual place of residence
  • Her human rights activism began during the Revolution of Dignity
  • Criticized attempts to influence the selection of new PIC members, stating ‘Mykhailo, you are legalizing talking points now’

📅 Career Timeline

2015 - present
Head of Civil Society Protection Direction
Human Rights Centre ZMINA — Kyiv, Ukraine
2023 - 2024
Member of the Public Integrity Council (third composition)
Supreme Court of Ukraine — Kyiv, Ukraine
2010s
Sales, marketing and customer relationship management roles
Private companies — Kyiv and Luhansk, Ukraine
🔗 Related Profiles (2)
Public Integrity Council (ГРД)
Public Integrity Council (ГРД)
Human Rights Centre ZMINA
Human Rights Centre ZMINA

📋 Documented Instances

Negative Integrity Conclusion on Lavreniuk Tetiana Anatoliivna: Crimea Connection in Judicial Assessment

📅 June 16, 2025 | 📍 Liudmyla Yankina voted in favor: PIC cited systematic post-occupation trips to Crimea to visit parents as primary basis for negative integrity conclusion.
"The judge visited temporarily occupied Crimea without urgent need after the start of armed aggression. The candidate and her family members visited the occupied Crimean peninsula after the start of Russian aggression. According to border crossing database data, from 2017 to 2020 the candidate together with her husband traveled to temporarily occupied Crimea 2-4 times per year, staying 1-2 weeks. In explanations to the HQCJ during the 2018 interview, the judge stated the purpose of these trips to occupied Crimea was visiting her parents who lived there. "
HIGH ✓ Verified Official meeting

Negative Integrity Conclusion on Prykhod'ko Oleksandr Ivanovych: Crimea Connection in Judicial Assessment

📅 May 19, 2025 | 📍 Liudmyla Yankina voted in favor: PIC cited post-occupation family trips to Russian Federation and occupied territories as integrity violation.
"the candidate for the position of judge, Prykhod'ko Oleksandr Ivanovych, together with his wife, Prykhod'ko Nataliia Volodymyrivna and minor son, Prykhod'ko Makar Oleksandrovych, who was only 6 months old at the time of the trip, visited the Russian Federation after the occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, as well as parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions "
HIGH ✓ Verified Official meeting

Negative Integrity Conclusion on Minaieva Kateryna Volodymyrivna: Crimea Connection in Judicial Assessment

📅 May 18, 2025 | 📍 Liudmyla Yankina voted in favor: PIC cited mother's unexplained 1.2 million hryvnia investment in Yalta apartment as evidence of suspicious wealth sources
"the judge's mother, who according to the judge invested 1.2 million hryvnias (150 thousand dollars) in 2012-2014 in purchasing an apartment near Yalta from her own savings and salary at PJSC HC Kyivmiskbud, received only 180 thousand hryvnias and 176 thousand hryvnias per year respectively in 2013 and 2014 at Kyivmiskbud, which would have covered only a quarter of what was invested in the apartment "
HIGH ✓ Verified Official meeting

Negative Integrity Conclusion on Viacheslav Oleksandrovych Herheliinyk: Crimea Connection in Judicial Assessment

📅 May 5, 2025 | 📍 Liudmyla Yankina voted in favor: PIC cited candidate's wife's mother's post-occupation trips to Crimea as integrity violation grounds.
"Moreover, the candidate's wife's mother, Pidvalna Olena Viktorivna, repeatedly traveled to the Russian Federation and to the AR Crimea after its occupation by the Russian Federation. Specifically, the candidate's wife's mother crossed the state border: - at the Chaplynka checkpoint (exit) 20.06.2018; - at the Hoptivka checkpoint (exit) 21.07.2018 and Bachivsk checkpoint (entry) - 07.08.2018. "
HIGH ✓ Verified Official meeting

Negative Integrity Conclusion on Bilonozhenко Maryna Anatoliivna: Crimea Connection in Judicial Assessment

📅 May 5, 2025 | 📍 Liudmyla Yankina voted in favor: PIC flagged husband's 10% land ownership in occupied Crimea as integrity concern requiring explanation
"From the annual declarations submitted by the candidate of a person authorized to perform state or local government functions, it appears that the candidate's husband, from 12.06.2013, owns 10% of a land plot located in temporarily occupied Crimea. "
LOW ✓ Verified Official meeting

Negative Integrity Conclusion on Litvinov Serhii Volodymyrovych: Crimea Connection in Judicial Assessment

📅 April 1, 2025 | 📍 Liudmyla Yankina voted in favor: PIC cited judge's family trips to occupied Crimea in 2018-2020 as integrity violation for visiting occupied territory without urgent need
"repeated trips by the judge personally and his family, presumably for vacation purposes, to occupied Crimea in 2018-2020 violate the integrity criterion, according to which a judge cannot visit temporarily occupied territories without urgent need after the start of armed aggression, as this exposes his professional activity and state interests to risk "
HIGH ✓ Verified Official meeting

Negative Integrity Conclusion on Dziuba Oleh Anatoliiovych: Crimea Connection in Judicial Assessment

📅 June 8, 2024 | 📍 Liudmyla Yankina voted in favor: PIC cited wife's business registration in occupied Sevastopol and Russian documentation as collaboration evidence.
"Using information from business aggregators, it was established that a person named "Dziuba Svetlana Vladimirovna" registered as an individual entrepreneur in Sevastopol on August 16, 2016, i.e., after the occupation of the Crimean Peninsula by Russian forces, with the type of activity "production of other outerwear". According to the data, Dziuba S.V. in 2014 (not earlier than July 2014) obtained a Russian passport and an individual personal account insurance number (in Russian - SNILS), which is valid. "
HIGH ✓ Verified Official meeting