Case description
The NABU accuses Olha Stefanishyna, former Minister of Justice and former Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, of complicity in the malversation of more than 2.5 million budget funds. Stefanishyna is one of the defendants in the so-called Lukash case, which concerns the events of 2013–2014.
According to the prosecution, in 2013–2014, officials of the Ministry of Justice embezzled UAH 2,523,000 of budget funds intended for the adaptation of national legislation to EU legislation. The defendants transferred funds to the European Legal Group LLC and several individual entrepreneurs without sufficient legal grounds.
Olha Stefanishyna, then Deputy Prime Minister and at the time an employee of the Department of European Integration, together with Olena Lukash, the former Minister of Justice under Yanukovych, organized and conducted a tender for the procurement of these services. As the Deputy Prime Minister explained, she initiated research on European integration. According to investigative journalists from Bihus.Info, the quality of the work, in which one page cost from UAH 1,500 to 4,500, does not look satisfactory.
At different stages of the investigation, notices of suspicion were issued to:
- Olena Lukash — former Minister of Justice of Ukraine
- Yurii Ivashchenko — Lukash’s deputy, former Chief of Staff of the Ministry
- Serhii Mudryi — former Director of one of the Ministry’s departments
- Olena Biriukova — former Department Director, former Chief Accountant, and former Deputy Chair of the Tender Committee
- Svitlana Kolyshko — former Head of the Division of the Department of International Law and Cooperation of the Ministry of Justice
- Olha Stefanishyna — former Head of the Ministry’s European Integration Unit, later Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration and Minister of Justice
- Oleksii Kalmykov — lawyer who received UAH 930,000 for a 500-page study
- Hanna Sapelnykova — entrepreneur who received UAH 680,000 for 149 pages of material
- Taisiia Bilotska — former Acting Director of European Legal Group LLC, which received over UAH 900,000 for a 686-page study
- Bohdan Kryvolapov, Andrii Bondar, and Viktoriia Koval.
All of these individuals were later indicted for criminal offenses under Article 191(5) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (Misappropriation, embezzlement, or taking possession of property through abuse of office) and Article 366(1) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (Forgery in office). In 2024, at the defendants’ request, the HACC released some of them from liability for forgery in office, as the statute of limitations for this offense had already expired. However, by that time Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna and several other defendants did not submit such motions, as they sought to prove their innocence in court.
In December 2023, the HACC placed Lukash on the international wanted list. In January 2024, the HACC authorized special proceedings (in absentia) against her, as she had left Ukraine in March 2022 and had not returned.
In addition to them, the NABU and the SAPO charge 10 other people, including the executors of the allegedly fictitious order and accomplices. Ms. Stefanishyna commented on the investigation as follows: “For my part, I cooperated with the investigation as much as possible, provided all the documents and all the facts, and I hope that everyone will have an understanding that this case has a nominal factor, and is not a stormy criminal proceeding. Throughout my professional career, there have been no episodes that would indicate that I could be involved in something like this. And I'm sure there will not be any in the future.”
The Deputy Prime Minister is charged with Article 191(5) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Earlier, Stefanishyna was in for prosecution for forgery, but the statute of limitations under the article had already expired. The trial is ongoing.
From June 2020 to September 2024, Olha Stefanishyna served as Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine in Denys Shmyhal’s government. After that, until July 2025, she held the position of Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration — Minister of Justice of Ukraine. Following the change of government in July 2025, she was dismissed from this post. On August 27, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Stefanishyna as Ukraine’s new Ambassador to the United States.
