Digest of Events of the High Council of Justice for January 1–15, 2026

The High Council of Justice dismissed five judges upon their resignation:

• Oksana Hennadiivna Slobodian — from the position of judge of the Commercial Court of the Volyn Region;
• Nataliia Viacheslavivna Strilets — from the position of judge of the Shatsk District Court of the Volyn Region;
• Mykhailo Ivanovych Hrytsiv — from the position of judge of the Supreme Court;
• Nina Vasylivna Samchyshyna — from the position of judge of the Mykolaiv Court of Appeal;
• Liudmyla Ivanivna Klepka — from the position of judge of the Myrnohrad City Court of the Donetsk Region (seconded to the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of the city of Dnipro).

The High Council of Justice dismissed two judges for committing significant disciplinary misconduct.

The HCJ adopted decisions on dismissal pursuant to paragraph 3 of part six of Article 126 of the Constitution of Ukraine regarding:

• Illia Volodymyrovych Lonskyi — from the position of judge of the Prymorskyi District Court of the city of Odesa;
• Ihor Oleksandrovych Ratushniak — from the position of judge of the Tyvriv District Court of the Vinnytsia Region.

Use of materials from criminal proceedings as evidence in disciplinary proceedings against judges: is there a legal issue?

The full text of the article is available via the link.

The High Council of Justice will submit to the President of Ukraine recommendations for the appointment of two judges to appellate courts.

On 13 January 2026, the High Council of Justice adopted decisions to submit recommendations to the President of Ukraine for the appointment of two judges to appellate court positions, namely:

• Liubomyr Viktorovych Andreychuk — to the position of judge of the Central Commercial Court of Appeal;
• Yevhen Vasylovych Yangol — to the position of judge of the Sumy Court of Appeal.

Two judges were temporarily suspended from the administration of justice on the basis of a decision of the Second Disciplinary Chamber of the High Council of Justice:

• Nataliia Viktorivna Cheban, judge of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi City and District Court of the Odesa Region;
• Viktoriia Anatoliivna Prykhodko, judge of the Maryinskyi District Court of the Donetsk Region (seconded to the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of the city of Zaporizhzhia).

The decision to hold these judges disciplinarily liable and to apply a disciplinary sanction in the form of a submission for dismissal from office was adopted by the Second Disciplinary Chamber of the HCJ on 14 January 2026.

The High Council of Justice and the EU Project “PRAVO-JUSTICE” focused on key cooperation priorities.

On 15 January 2026, the HCJ held an online working meeting with international experts of the preparatory mission for the fourth phase of the European Union Project “PRAVO-JUSTICE”.

Key cooperation priorities include monitoring the application of the Unified Indicators for Assessing Judges’ Integrity and Professional Ethics, conducting a functional audit of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, improving conflict of interest regulation, auditing judicial governance and self-governance bodies, and developing a methodology for optimizing the court network.

The meeting participants also discussed the shortage of judicial staff, simplification of competitive selection procedures, digitalization of justice, centralized and extraterritorial automated case allocation, and the resumption of work on creating a database of court decisions in war crimes cases.

International experts emphasized that the next phase of the Project will focus on supporting the implementation of the Roadmap on the rule of law and Ukraine’s European integration processes.

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