MP Oleksandr Yurchenko and his acquaintance Ivan Fishchenko, who is described as the MP's unofficial assistant, are charged with accepting a bribe for amending legislation in favor of a foreign company and for the subsequent bribery of other MPs.

Oleksandr Yurchenko was head of the subcommittee on household waste management within the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy and Housing and Utilities Services.

According to the investigation, the MP, in a veiled manner, asked that $13,000 (the “perks”) be passed to him through his “assistant” Ivan Fishchenko for himself, along with $200,000 for the MPs on his committee. In exchange for this money, he promised to secure a vote for legislative changes favorable to a foreign company. This concerns the “green tariff” on electricity for enterprises that process waste.

Earlier, in the summer of 2020, the NABU received information about an organized group engaged in trading in influence among MPs. As part of a special operation, an undercover NABU detective then exposed Yurchenko's corruption scheme. Posing as a representative of an industrial company that purportedly wanted to open a waste-processing plant in Ukraine, the detective got to know Yurchenko through an intermediary.

In early August 2020, the detective handed the first part of the bribe to the intermediary. The special operation was then halted, as NABU stated that someone had tipped off those involved.

The serving of the notice of suspicion on the MP was held up for a week by the then Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova. The NABU urged her to sign the notice of suspicion, but she did so only a week after receiving the document from NABU. Initially, moreover, Venediktova claimed that there were no grounds for serving Yurchenko with a notice of suspicion.

Oleksandr Yurchenko was expelled from the Servant of the People faction over the bribery suspicion, but he still holds the mandate of a Member of Parliament of Ukraine. Yurchenko pleaded not guilty, and the case later began to raise the issue of incitement.

Yurchenko's actions were classified under Article 368(4) and Article 27(4) in conjunction with Article 369(4) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Fishchenko's actions were classified under Article 27(5) in conjunction with Article 368(4), and Article 27(4) in conjunction with Article 369(4).

In July 2021, the MP got caught up in a scandal. It emerged that Yurchenko had caused a road accident in central Lviv and attacked a driver who was filming the situation on his phone. Video of the incident was published by another MP, Geo Leros. Yurchenko tried to flee the scene but was unable to. The Halytskyi District Court of Lviv subsequently acquitted Yurchenko, finding no guilt on his part.

At the start of the full-scale invasion, Yurchenko again made headlines after being detained by territorial defense personnel at a checkpoint for aggressive behavior.

During the selection of a preventive measure, he rejected all the accusations, stating that he had nothing to do with the case materials, had not taken any money, and had not incited anyone.

Since 2022, Fishchenko has been mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He takes part in the court hearings by videoconference.

At a hearing on February 26, 2026, the prosecutor presented a revised indictment, clarifying the distribution of the bribe and changing the legal classification of the defendants’ actions. Under the updated version of the charges, investigators specified the amounts and recipients of the undue benefit. Previously, it was alleged that Yurchenko solicited a USD 13,000 bribe solely for himself. The prosecution now alleges a different split:

• $10,000 — intended for MP Yurchenko directly,
• $3,000 — intended for his “assistant”, Ivan Fishchenko.

In addition, the prosecutor changed the legal classification from “abuse of official position” to “abuse of power,” since the investigation established that the unlawful benefit had been obtained through the use of the authority vested in him, rather than in connection with his official position.