The case about the estate in Kozyn: HACC has begun consideration on the merits regarding Judge Kropyvna, who is accused of illegal enrichment

Judge of the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal Lyudmyla Kropyvna is accused of illegal enrichment and knowingly false declaration of assets.

This is reported by "Sudovyi reporter".

In December 2021, the judge purchased a 260 sq.m house and two land plots in the village of Kozyn near Kyiv. The criminal proceedings were registered in May 2023; in 2024, an "inspection" was carried out at the judge’s home, during which a mobile phone and a tablet were seized. In September 2025, she was notified of suspicion.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau claims that the judge acquired real estate that did not correspond to her lawful income.

Illegal enrichment is punishable by imprisonment for a term of 5 to 10 years.

In May 2026, the High Council of Justice suspended Kropyvna from administering justice until the verdict enters into legal force or the criminal proceedings are closed.

On July 27, the High Anti-Corruption Court completed the preparatory hearing and proceeded to the merits. The case is being heard by Judge Oksana Oliynyk sitting alone.

Prosecutor Ihor Tkach read out the indictment; the defendant and her two defence lawyers delivered opening statements. Kropyvna plans to testify, but this will be at the end — the court will first examine written evidence and question witnesses.

The written evidence includes, in particular, the inspection reports of Kropyvna’s own tablet and mobile phone, as well as inspection reports of the phones of the notary and seller Skliar, which contain correspondence regarding the purchase of the property.

Did the judge manage to buy the house three times cheaper?

On the OLX classifieds website, the property was listed for 1–1.5 million US dollars. Judge Kropyvna officially purchased it from citizen Skliar for 8 million 200 thousand hryvnias.

On the day the sale-purchase agreement was signed, she took out a loan of 5.8 million hryvnias from citizen Havrylyuk Nataliya. She also deferred payment of another 2.4 million hryvnias.

The real estate sale-purchase agreement was signed at a branch of PrivatBank. An hour later, Ms. Skliar received a service at the same branch for the transfer and verification of authenticity of 891 thousand US dollars (about 24 million hryvnias). Thus, the real price could have been three times higher than the one stated in the contract. NABU detectives believe that the judge paid the price difference in cash.

Kropyvna’s defence lawyers are convinced that there is no evidence linking Kropyvna to the 891 thousand dollars that Skliar had verified at the bank.

"You will not find a single document showing that our client ever held this money in her hands," said lawyer Viktoriya Kirina, addressing the court.

The seller of the land and house in Kozyn refused to give testimony to NABU during the pre-trial investigation regarding the circumstances of the transaction. However, the prosecution plans to call her as a witness in court.

The prosecutor mentioned in passing that the house has landscape design and a swimming pool. According to experts from the Bokarius Institute, its market value as of December 14, 2021, was 19 million 308 thousand hryvnias.

The prosecutor believes that as of December 2021, Kropyvna’s lawful income could not have exceeded 7.6 million hryvnias — this amount included the judge’s salary and the 5.8 million hryvnia loan.

Speaking of the loan. According to Kropyvna’s declaration, the money was lent to her by Havrylyuk Nataliya. In 2015, the judge’s son Artur Krapivnoi worked at the law firm "G and K", whose director was Nataliya Havrylyuk, known in the media as the former wife of Viktor Medvedchuk… They were married in the 1980s and have a daughter together.

"Should a judge live in an orange box?!"

In their opening statement, the judge’s lawyers noted that the article on illegal enrichment shifts the burden of proof onto the defence. In their view, the accusation is entirely based on unsubstantiated assumptions.

Kropyvna denies guilt.

— I understood that a judge has no right to hear cases involving oligarchs. It is better to refuse this. Secondly, a judge has no right to have friends or any entourage. He must be a loner, live in an orange box, and never enter into transactions larger than minor ones, — she said.

Lawyer Artem Kravchenko stated that citizen Skliar had been trying to sell the house for a long time since 2019 but was unsuccessful, so the price had to be reduced. Information from classifieds websites, in his opinion, cannot confirm the terms of a specific contract. Data on market prices for land in Kozyn, according to the defence lawyer, has no evidentiary value. The Civil Code provides for freedom of contract, including that the price is set by agreement of the parties. The law does not oblige the parties to the contract to take market prices into account.

— When I met Skliar, I found her myself, without any ads. I said that I could buy the house, but at a price that really costs, without all that inflated pathos that everyone puts in when they only hear the word Kozyn. We did not agree on the same day. She gave me a tour of the house… I asked some questions. I noticed that the floor had cracks. For someone who understands a bit about architecture and construction… And what is the degree of occurrence between the ground and the aquifer and what is the foundation made of? If there are cracks, it is obvious that the foundation has some defects. Later we met again — she named her price and I agreed. I said that of course I would not be able to pay the entire amount at once — it would depend on how I sold my real estate objects that I have in Ternopil. My parents lived there… It seemed to me that all the real estate I have, plus the garage, plus something else, and I would be able to buy this property, — the judge explained.

Order from an oligarch?

Kropyvna believes that a targeted media campaign was launched against her and other judges of the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal. In 2021–2022, Kropyvna presided over a panel that invalidated a 20-year-old contract for the purchase of securities, depriving structures of businessman Kostyantyn Zhevaho of rights to 40% of the shares of the Poltava Mining and Processing Plant.

Judges Maryna Barsuk and Yevheniy Ponomarenko complained to the High Council of Justice in connection with publications by "Espreso TV", owned by Ivan Zhevaho, son of Kostyantyn Zhevaho. In the program "Shustrov LIVE", the judges were called pocket judges, corrupt, and linked to businessman Kolomoiskyi. In the publications by Zhevaho’s media, the judges saw pressure on themselves. A criminal proceeding has been registered regarding interference in the activities of judges, which is being investigated by the State Bureau of Investigations.

In May 2023, NABU detained the Head of the Supreme Court Vsevolod Knyazyev — for a 1.8 million dollar bribe allegedly transferred by Zhevaho to him and other judges of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court for overturning the mentioned decision of the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal.

— I am confidently saying that this is a deliberate persecution of me for the decision made by the panel of judges not in favor of Zhevaho’s company. I state that this is an ordered revenge… This is a characteristic way for this oligarch to resolve disputes. Not only with regard to judges, but also his business colleagues, this is no secret, — said Kropyvna.

She also drew attention to such a "coincidence" — the indictment in her case was drawn up by NABU detective Bohdan Prokopenko. His father, Oleksandr Prokopenko, a retired Supreme Court judge, after the Knyazyev deal became one of the suspects in the case of possible bribery of judges of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court in the interests of Zhevaho. Back in May 2023, marked banknotes from the tranche received by Knyazyev from Zhevaho were found in the apartment of Prokopenko Sr. and other judges, but suspicions were notified only three years later…

Kropyvna reported that she and the Prokopenkos are neighbors — they live in the same building and the same entrance. This refers to an apartment building on the Dnipro embankment, where the same scandalous apartment is located, which Judge Prokopenko once privatized from service housing and, a couple of days before the suspicion was announced against him, managed to gift to his son, an NABU detective.