On August 4, 2026, the HACC began questioning MP Oleksandr Yurchenko, who is charged with accepting a bribe for voting to amend legislation in favor of a foreign company and for the subsequent bribery of other MPs.

Today, it was the prosecution that put its questions. Regarding his work, Yurchenko explained that in 2019 he had been elected to the Verkhovna Rada from the Holosiivskyi District of Kyiv and joined the Committee on Energy and Housing and Utilities Services, where he dealt with a wide range of environmental issues. Waste management was therefore his core area of responsibility long before the criminal case was opened.

Speaking about his assistants, the MP noted that they handled the registration of draft laws, the reception of citizens, and work with electronic document management. However, according to Yurchenko, the other defendant, Ivan Fishchenko, was not his assistant. The MP said that he had met Fishchenko in 2015 during elections on behalf of the Ukrop party, where Fishchenko worked as a political strategist, after which the two developed a friendly relationship.

The first meeting with the so-called investor Demchenko, according to Yurchenko, actually took place at Fishchenko's initiative, even though the MP himself was in a hurry to leave on vacation at the time. Explaining what he had meant by “support for the environment” in the conversations recorded during covert investigative actions, the defendant said that he was referring to the need for public support for initiatives to build waste-processing plants, which usually meet with resistance from residents of a large city like Kyiv. He explained his involvement of Fishchenko by the fact that Fishchenko was well-versed in environmental matters and could answer Demchenko's numerous questions.

Yurchenko stated that already during the meeting at the Veranda on Dnipro venue he had realized that Demchenko was a fraudster, but did not turn to law enforcement because the election campaign was in full swing. He explained the transcript of the conversations about “perks” by saying that it concerned useful projects demonstrating his effectiveness as an MP, not money. He described his words about resolving matters quickly as an attempt to shake off an intrusive interlocutor who did not give the impression of representing a large plant. Yurchenko explained that he had given Demchenko his phone number in case Demchenko really did do something useful for the country, but that he himself had not intended to put forward any proposals after the July 27 meeting and simply wanted to go on vacation.

Separately, Yurchenko denied any involvement in the amendments to the draft law on waste management. According to him, the amendments were registered without his knowledge by his assistant Zhyhun while the MP himself was on vacation. The MP did not, however, want to get into that dispute with him during the questioning and simply stated that they were in conflict. As for the meetings with Demchenko in August, the MP explained that he had not intended to cause any public scandals and had met with him a second time only to see what the fraudster would do next.

Regarding the alleged giving of the bribe — namely Fishchenko's message to Demchenko that “Sasha wanted ten grand for himself” — Yurchenko categorically denied receiving $10,000 or any other “tokens of gratitude.” He said that Fishchenko himself had admitted during questioning that he had merely built up an image of a “fixer” in front of Demchenko, and that the MP himself had nothing to do with it.

As for the meaning of the words “constructiveness” and “first stage” recorded during covert investigative actions, Yurchenko explained that he did not know their meaning in the context of the charges, and that the concept of “political dividends” meant, for him, solely the benefit to society.

Regarding the meeting on August 20, 2020, at the Vero Vero venue and the discussion of funds for the so-called support of the draft law, the MP explained that by that point he had become fully convinced that Demchenko was a fraudster and had deliberately voiced such phrases in order to expose him by making him state his criminal intentions. The discussion of “helping the environment,” the MP maintains, took place directly between Fishchenko and Demchenko, and he himself was not involved in extorting or receiving any bribes.

At the next court hearing, which will take place on August 11, it will be the defense that puts its questions to Yurchenko.