A former member of the Khmelnytskyi Regional Council was sentenced to 7 years for corruption
The Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court upheld the sentence handed down to Mykola Kharkav, a former member of the Khmelnytskyi Regional Council. He is to serve seven years in prison, with all his property confiscated. The case, in which Kharkavoy was found guilty of fraud and incitement to bribery, lasted eight years.
The Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court has definitively upheld the sentence against Mykola Kharkavyi, a former member of the Khmelnytskyi Regional Council. Kharkavyi served as a member of the 7th convocation of the regional council from 2015 to 2020. Kharkavyi is currently a member of the armed forces.
The Appeals Chamber issued its decision on September 22. The court did not alter the High Anti-Corruption Court’s verdict dated January 21, 2022. Consequently, Kharkavyi must serve seven years in prison. In addition, the court ordered the complete confiscation of his property. The appellate court’s decision took effect immediately upon its announcement.
What Kharkavyi Was Charged With
The case concerns events from 2017. According to the case file, in the summer of that year, Kharkavyi demanded and received $49,100 from the director of the Kamianets-Podilskyi “Slavutynka” Specialized Boarding School. In exchange for this money, as the courts established, he promised to stop initiating audits regarding the use of budget funds allocated to the school.
The courts found Kharkov guilty of attempted fraud and incitement to provide an unlawful benefit. This relates to Part 4 of Article 190 and Part 4 of Article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. In the trial court, Kharkavyi did not admit guilt. He refused to testify and claimed he was the victim of a setup.
According to him, employees of the National Police’s Economic Protection Department and the director of a boarding school may have been involved in the situation. During the court proceedings, Kharkavy insisted on his innocence and asked to be acquitted. However, the court of first instance found him guilty. The Appeals Chamber has now upheld this decision.
Kharkavyi serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine
The case dragged on for years. In total, about eight years passed from the time of the events to the final appellate decision. In May 2022, Kharkavy was mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He began his service as a security commander at a military commissariat. Due to his military service, the case was suspended in May 2022. The court granted the relevant motions filed by Kharkavyi himself and his defense attorney.
However, in mid-April 2026, the court resumed proceedings. After that, Kharkiv never appeared in person at a hearing. Nor did he participate in the proceedings via video link. His interests were represented by an attorney during the hearings.
He is currently continuing his military service in Dnipro. Therefore, after the verdict became final, the question arose as to how exactly it would be enforced. The case file notes that no final decision on this matter has been made yet.
The court addressed the issue of assets
Separately, the Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court issued another ruling. The court referred the matter to the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office due to circumstances that, in the court’s opinion, may constitute a crime under Article 364 of the Criminal Code—abuse of power or official position. This concerns the case involving the real estate owned by Kharkiv and his wife.
The court found that in 2018, a Lviv court divided the couple’s property. Among the assets were an apartment measuring nearly 80 square meters and a basement storage unit measuring 1.9 square meters. However, as early as 2017, a Kyiv court had already seized Kharkov’s real estate as part of this criminal proceeding.
In the High Anti-Corruption Court’s 2022 ruling, some of the property seizures were also upheld. The Appeals Chamber took note of these circumstances and forwarded the information to the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office for review.
Must Pay Compensation
In addition to seven years in prison and the confiscation of his property, Kharkivy must also pay compensation to the victim. The court ordered him to pay 50,000 hryvnias for emotional distress and an additional 600 hryvnias in court costs. Thus, following the Appeals Chamber’s decision, the verdict against the former lawmaker became final. At the same time, due to his service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, there remains a practical issue regarding the enforcement of the sentence.
The criminal case itself lasted about eight years. During this time, Kharkavyi transitioned from his status as a lawmaker to that of a military servicemember, and the court proceedings in the case—following a hiatus from 2022 to 2026—concluded with a final decision by the appellate court.
