Law enforcement officers are still involved in custom-made persecution and pressure on business; the situation has not changed. At the same time, according to him, judges always understand when a case is custom-made. Oleksandr Sytnykov, a retired judge of the High Administrative Court and lawyer, expressed this opinion in an exclusive comment to UNN.
The scheme, as it worked for squeezing out businesses, still works. And where necessary, these cases do not reach the court. They hang for years
According to him, most judges understand when a criminal case has signs of being custom-made, but the reaction to this can be different.
I would say that every judge, well, not every, most judges feel where the case is custom-made. Only the behavior of each judge is their own in this regard. Someone understands it and puts those people (initiators of custom-made persecution – ed.) in their place. Someone can get involved in this scheme, and that happens
He gave an example from his own practice when, as a lawyer, he appealed the arrest of the property of a legal entity that actually had nothing to do with the criminal proceedings. According to Sytnykov, the investigating judge explained the arrest by a heavy workload and the fact that she "did not see" the company's lack of connection with the case. "But here there are always two options: either she really did not see, or she deliberately did not want to see," the lawyer noted.
According to the ex-judge, law enforcement officers are often not interested in bringing custom-made criminal proceedings to court, as they understand their weakness and that they will be broken in court by the defense.
It should be noted that in the conditions of martial law, delaying investigations becomes an even more effective tool of persecution, because proceedings can remain dormant for a long time, creating constant pressure on businesses.
Main signs of custom-made cases
Denys Nevyadomsky, President of the All-Ukrainian Association of Retired Judges, in a comment to UNN spoke about the main signs of custom-made criminal proceedings. The main one is the investigation's focus not on collecting evidence, but on putting pressure on business.
To do this, investigators use tools such as arrests of equipment and machinery, which paralyzes the company's operations.
The lawyer paid special attention to the practice of frequent summonses of employees for interrogations, which are used for psychological pressure and creating an atmosphere of constant tension within the company, as well as delaying the investigation.
An experienced lawyer will be able to determine if a case is custom-made. The main signs: investigators focusing on exerting pressure, not collecting evidence; imposing arrests and choosing a preventive measure as an end in itself, stopping business activities by seizing equipment, computers (instead of extracting information), frequent summonses of employees for interrogations to increase tension, disseminating information about criminal proceedings through controlled media, dragging out the case (not sending the case to court for as long as possible so as not to transfer control over it to the court), not serving a notice of suspicion (this does not start the preclusive terms of the investigation, and in wartime, a case under suspicion can last forever)
Cases against the "Konstanta" airline group as an example of custom-made persecution
Such explanations by former judges make it possible to conclude that a number of identical cases being investigated by law enforcement agencies against the "Konstanta" airline group are nothing more than custom-made persecution.
As UNN previously reported, at the end of 2022, the National Police opened criminal proceedings No. 12022000000001276 against a group of airlines, including "Konstanta Airlines". Formally, the investigation concerns alleged complicity with the aggressor state and seizure of property. The case was opened based on a statement by the head of the NGO "ATO Veterans Council" Pavlo Moshkovsky, which is associated with the company "Ukrainian Helicopters".
In the statement, he spoke about a "conspiracy theory" allegedly aimed at weakening Ukraine's economic security and seizing strategic enterprises in the aviation industry, including SE "Antonov", which, by the way, continues to be state-owned. At the same time, after almost four years of investigation, no facts confirming these claims have been established.
Despite the fact that crimes under Article 111-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine fall under the jurisdiction of the SBU, the proceedings were investigated by the Main Investigation Department of the National Police until 2025, after which they were transferred to the SBU. In parallel, investigators initiated large-scale searches, seizure of equipment, and arrests of company accounts, which effectively paralyzed economic activity and led to the disruption of contracts, including for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and international humanitarian missions.
As the court said, paralyzing the work of enterprises without objective grounds is one of the main signs of custom-made persecution and pressure on business.
Confidence is also added by the fact that this is not the only criminal proceeding being investigated by the SBU against the "Konstanta" group of companies. The Security Service, as well as the State Bureau of Investigation, have already studied similar cases against these enterprises, opened based on applications from the aforementioned NGO "ATO Veterans Council". At that time, law enforcement officers did not find any elements of a crime, and the criminal proceedings were closed.
In addition, according to UNN, the SBU and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine officially confirmed the absence of grounds for applying sanctions against the "Konstanta" group of companies.
Representatives of the enterprises emphasize that all foreign counterparties, including those in the UAE, with whom they cooperate, underwent strict international compliance, and no state bank recorded suspicious financial transactions.
It should be noted that PJSC "Konstanta Airlines" is a permanent official carrier for international humanitarian missions and non-profit organizations, and also fulfills orders for partner states, including NATO countries. The company is one of the leading operators of "Antonov" aircraft and the operator of the largest fleet of An-26s, which makes it an important part of Ukraine's aviation capabilities. The enterprise has established a full cycle of maintenance for aircraft manufactured by SE "Antonov".
Since 2019, the company has been an official partner of the UN and has EASA TCO, UK TCO, and US FAA certificates, thus meeting the highest international requirements. The group's airlines regularly undergo UN inspections and audits as part of contractor selection and oversight procedures, which further confirms compliance with transparency requirements.
Other enterprises included in the group of companies have the status of critically important for the functioning of the economy and ensuring the livelihoods of the population in a special period during martial law, granted by the State Aviation Service of Ukraine. In addition, they have the status of critically important enterprises in the field of air transport, which was granted by the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine.
A study of the history of the persecution of the "Konstanta" airline group and the totality of the facts revealed allow us to consider the mentioned criminal proceedings as having signs of custom-made persecution with the involvement of law enforcement agencies. Years of investigation without proven facts, changes in jurisdiction, parallel searches and arrests, previous closure of similar cases by other investigators – all this forms a systemic picture, not a random coincidence of circumstances.
The specifics of the companies' activities, namely the execution of international humanitarian contracts, cooperation with partner states, and the execution of defense contracts, add particular weight to this situation. The paralysis of the work of critically important enterprises in the field of air transport, which, among other things, are also engaged in aircraft manufacturing, has consequences not only for individual businesses but also for defense capabilities, international reputation, and Ukraine's fulfillment of external obligations.
Ultimately, the problem goes beyond a single case. It is about the balance between the powers of law enforcement agencies and guarantees of protection of entrepreneurial activity. If the criminal process is used as a tool of competitive struggle or administrative influence, it destroys trust in the law enforcement and judicial system as a whole. In wartime, such practice creates additional risks for the economic stability of the state and obviously requires an immediate institutional response.