Corruption scandals in Cherkasy region: bulletproof vests, bribes and influential prosecutors

Before the war, the Cherkasy region often made headlines for numerous corruption scandals, including searches, detentions, and bribery.

In 2014, law enforcement officers arrested Petro Gaman, head of the State Agency for Land Resources, for accepting a $57,000 bribe. In 2015, they caught Ivan Mazurenko, a former deputy director of the Cherkasy branch of the State Land Cadastre Center, for accepting a $54,000 bribe. In 2016, village head Svitlana Vovk set a record by demanding $184,000. The high-profile arrests in 2019 of Cherkasy regional council deputies Mykola Divnich and Anatoly Koversky for offering a $140,000 bribe, and of colleague Volodymyr Kokodzei for providing a $300,000 bribe. In addition, in 2020, NABU is conducting searches in the case of overstating the costs of reconstructing the runway of Cherkasy airport by more than 13 million hryvnias.

After the invasion began, the number of corruption incidents decreased due to the shift in law enforcement officers’ focus to war crimes and the absence of internal political disputes.

The first high-profile event concerned the illegal sale of humanitarian bulletproof vests. The Security Service of Ukraine reported an attempt to sell more than 1,000 bulletproof vests worth more than 12 million hryvnias through commercial companies. However, these vests were intended for the Armed Forces. However, after the inspection, the case was closed due to insufficient evidence of the crime.

In June 2022, searches were conducted at the residence of Oleksiy Melnyk, a deputy of the Cherkasy City Council and head of the Cheluash municipal enterprise, who was accused of embezzling humanitarian aid. He was released on bail of 1 million hryvnias. In 2025, Melnyk was appointed director of the municipal enterprise “Cherkasyinvestbud”. In August of the same year, the temporary acting director of the “Parks Directorate,” Vladyslav Yurchenko, was detained after receiving a bribe of 77 thousand hryvnias for services to entrepreneurs. After two months of house arrest, Yurchenko returned to his post with a salary of 645 thousand hryvnias and a pension of 210 thousand hryvnias.

In April 2024, prosecutor Anton Grekov was detained in Cherkasy for extorting bribes from businesspeople. He was released on bail of 3 million hryvnias and later received a lawyer’s certificate. In early 2023, “municipal” official Stanislav Kolomiyets, together with a city council deputy, received 90 thousand hryvnias for a trip to Germany, but in fact, he was vacationing in Asia. Investigators also discovered fictitious payments to front persons. Kolomiyts was declared suspicious, removed from office, and the case was transferred to court. The hearing is scheduled for December 11, 2024.