Negative Integrity Conclusion on Kolomiiets Nataliia Oleksiivna: Crimea Connection in Judicial Assessment

What Happened#

On January 28, 2026, the Public Integrity Council approved a negative integrity conclusion on Kolomiiets Nataliia Oleksiivna (Коломієць Наталія Олексіївна), a candidate for a position at Court of Appeal. The conclusion was adopted by 11 of 19 members, including Olha Veretilnyk.

The PIC flagged post-2022 trips by candidate’s in-laws to occupied Crimea and their property ownership in Simferopol as integrity risks. By treating family connections to Crimea as potential security concerns that create ‘risks for independence’ and exposure to Russian intelligence services, the PIC operationally treats Crimea as Russian territory rather than occupied Ukrainian land.

Olha Veretilnyk 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#

Such trips without urgent necessity, firstly, created risks for the candidate’s independence and exposed her to the risk of falling under the influence of the aggressor country’s special services, and secondly, demonstrated a dismissive attitude from the candidate’s family toward the civic consensus regarding public condemnation of RF’s aggressive actions and adherence to the unspoken principle of refraining from trips to the aggressor country’s territory.

This quote demonstrates how the PIC treats travel to Crimea as equivalent to travel to ‘‘aggressor country territory,’’ thereby implicitly recognizing Russian jurisdiction over the peninsula rather than treating it as occupied Ukrainian territory.

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 January 28, 2026.
• Electronic voting record confirming participation by Olha Veretilnyk (11 of 19).