The HACC has discharged former First Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Shulmeister from criminal liability due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. The ruling was issued on April 13, 2026, but published only on April 20.
The HACC had previously discharged his superior, former Infrastructure Minister Andrii Pyvovarskyi, on the same grounds, and closed the corresponding criminal proceedings.
According to the investigation, in 2015, the Ministry of Infrastructure issued an order diverting half the ship dues collected at Pivdennyi seaport to private companies. As a result, the state budget lost over $40 million in revenue between 2017 and 2021.
The statute of limitations for the relevant article is 10 years. The investigation was launched as early as 2016, yet suspicion notices were only served in 2023.
In response to a request from Transparency International Ukraine, the NABU explained that the investigation was initially conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine and subsequently by the National Police. In 2019, the proceedings were closed for lack of corpus delicti, but NABU detectives successfully challenged that decision and had the case transferred to the Bureau. The NABU received the materials only in August 2019. Draft suspicion notices were prepared as early as June 2021, but the approval process by prosecutors took considerable time.
The investigation also notes that the disputed Ministry of Infrastructure order — issued by Pyvovarskyi and Shulmeister — remained in effect until April 2023, continuing to cause losses to the State Enterprise Administration of Seaports of Ukraine. Only in April 2024 did the Ministry of Justice register amendments canceling those provisions, which finally allowed the full extent of the losses to be established. Additional delays were caused by lengthy forensic economic examinations and the evacuation of case materials following Russia's full-scale invasion.
The investigation was completed in August 2023, after which the defense was given access to 180 volumes of case materials. The NABU considered the pace of review too slow and filed a motion with HACC to impose a time limit on document review; the investigating judge granted the motion only in part, setting a deadline of July 2024.
The case ultimately reached court only in July 2024. The trial on the merits began in March 2025, but a verdict could not be delivered before the statute of limitations expired — leaving the charges brought by the NABU and the SAPO without a substantive judicial outcome.
