The HACC's Appeals Chamber has concluded closing arguments in the case of Serhii Filonenko, former director of Izium Instrument-Making Plant. The first-instance court had acquitted him of accepting a bribe of over UAH 2.44 million from Vitalii Zhukov, former head of Optymumspetsdetal LLC.
At the August 10, 2026 hearing, the prosecution withdrew its request to question witness Kovalenko, who had failed to appear in court for the second time for valid reasons. The witness is elderly, lives outside Ukraine, suffers from a serious illness, and has undergone surgery. The defense supported the motion, and the judges granted it.
In closing arguments, the prosecutor stressed that Filonenko, while heading a strategic state enterprise, organized a corruption scheme instead of strengthening the country's defense capacity.
The prosecution disagrees with the first-instance acquittal and maintains that Filonenko is guilty. The prosecutor said that examination reports on Andrii Rohoza's laptop and iCloud account, along with screenshots of correspondence, confirm an arrangement between Vitalii Zhukov and Serhii Filonenko, consistent with findings from a Bihus.info investigation.
Zhukov and Rohoza signed plea agreements in 2023, committing to provide incriminating testimony. The prosecutor said Zhukov effectively confirmed the corruption scheme, stating that Filonenko himself had proposed the procurement mechanism. He also confirmed that the participants used coded language — "candies" meant money, and "green wrappers" meant U.S. dollars. Rohoza, the de facto head of Optymumspetsdetal, testified to the commercial dealings with the plant, noting that some of the goods supplied were already damaged.
The prosecutor also pointed to an expert finding documenting that Prosecutor General's Office officials had interfered with and deleted some of the messages.
Although witness Kovalenko, believed to have acted as an intermediary in the bribe transfer, did not personally confirm that money changed hands, the prosecutor argued that the combination of other circumstantial evidence fully proves Filonenko's guilt.
The prosecution asked the court to overturn the acquittal and sentence Filonenko to 10 years' imprisonment, with a 3-year ban on holding certain positions, under Article 368(4) of the Criminal Code.
In its closing arguments, the defense denied the defendant's guilt, arguing there was no direct evidence — no transfer of an unlawful benefit, nor any recorded conversations about one. The defense also argued that the prosecutor's supplementary submissions to the appeal worsened the defendant's position. Filonenko himself supported his lawyers' position.
Due to the judges' schedule, the defendant's final statement and the court's retirement to the deliberation room were postponed to September 24.
Serhii Filonenko's case concerns events from 2016–2017. According to investigators, Filonenko was to receive a bribe from Zhukov in exchange for concealing irregularities in payments for military-purpose goods supplied by Optymumspetsdetal. More on the related events can be found in our earlier coverage.
