Negative Integrity Conclusion on Kateryna Anatoliivna Barabash: Crimea Connection in Judicial Assessment

What Happened#

On October 28, 2025, the Public Integrity Council approved a negative integrity conclusion on Kateryna Anatoliivna Barabash (Барабаш Катерина Анатоліївна), a candidate for a position at Kamianets-Podilskyi City-District Court of Khmelnytskyi Oblast. The conclusion was adopted by 4 of 5 members, including Mariia Horban.

The PIC flagged that the judge’s sister lives in Sevastopol and the judge lives in an apartment owned by this sister, while the judge’s mother made trips to occupied Crimea. By treating these family connections to Crimea as integrity risks requiring explanation, the PIC implicitly treats Crimea as Russian territory where Ukrainian officials should not have ties.

Mariia Horban voted in favor of this conclusion. The Crimea-related element was flagged as a concern but was not cited as the primary basis for the negative conclusion.

The Crimea Connection#

The judge’s sister lives in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine in Sevastopol and visited the controlled territory of Ukraine 4 times from 2017 to 2021. In the judge’s questionnaire contained in the judicial file materials (p. 82), the Judge indicates that information about her sister’s place of residence is unknown to her, although the Judge lives in an apartment that belongs to her sister

The PIC treats the judge’’s property connection to Crimea (living in sister’’s apartment) and family ties to occupied Sevastopol as integrity concerns requiring explanation, operationally recognizing Russian jurisdiction over the peninsula.

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.

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 — contradicting Ukraine’s constitutional position that Crimea is sovereign Ukrainian territory under temporary occupation.

This conclusion is part of a documented pattern: a systematic review of PIC conclusions reveals that across dozens of cases, judges and candidates were assessed negatively on the basis of connections to Crimea. The pattern was formally codified in the December 16, 2020 revised Indicators.

Verification#

• Official PIC conclusion document dated October 28, 2025.
• Electronic voting record confirming participation by Mariia Horban (4 of 5).