A military unit in Mykolaiv has lodged a complaint with the High Council of Justice against Shcherbina, the head of the Zavodskyi District Court — he believes this is an act of revenge and a settling of scores

Serhiy Shcherbina, President of the Zavodskyi District Court. Photo: NikVesti

The High Council of Justice has opened disciplinary proceedings against Serhiy Shcherbyna, the head of the Zavodskyi District Court in Mykolaiv, over possible violations during the hearing of a civil case brought by a military serviceman.

This is stated in the ruling of the Third Disciplinary Chamber of the High Council of Justice dated 13 May 2026, NikVesti reports.

The case in question dates back to 2022, in which a soldier serving in one of the units in Mykolaiv filed a claim against the Mykolaiv Educational and Scientific Institute of Law of the National University “Odessa Law Academy” and two military units. The man demanded to be reinstated at the institute and that the military unit be ordered to discharge him from service during mobilisation.

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On 30 September 2022, Judge Serhii Shcherbyna issued a default judgment in favour of the claimant. However, this was subsequently overturned at the defendants’ request, and in January 2023 the case was dismissed altogether at the soldier’s own request, as the dispute had been resolved.

Despite the case being closed, one of the military units lodged a complaint against the judge with the High Council of Justice. The investigation materials note that Serhii Shcherbyna opened proceedings and scheduled a hearing just four days after receiving the claim. In the complainant’s view, this deprived the military units of the opportunity to file objections in a timely manner. Furthermore, they stated that they had not received a copy of the claim at all until the default judgment was issued and only learned of the court proceedings after the fact.

At the same time, during its investigation, the High Council of Justice noted that the case may have been allocated in breach of the automated case allocation system. In other words, during the automated allocation process, six judges may have been unjustifiably excluded, meaning the case «inevitably» ended up with Serhii Shcherbyna, the High Council of Justice states.

According to the system’s data, the case file was created on 22 September at 15:34. Just a minute later, at 15:35, judges Tetiana Kartasheva and Inna Prytuliak were excluded from the automated allocation, and at 15:49 — Roman Tsurkan — due to his presence in the consultation room. Although the Zavodskyi District Court did not provide the High Council of Justice with any documents to confirm this.

At the very same moment, at 15:49, three more judges were excluded from the system under the heading «Other» — Zinaida Sukharevych, Viacheslav Kuzmenko and Dmytro Nikitin. And the following day, 23 September, the automated case allocation system resumed for all judges.

«During the automated allocation of case No. 487/2806/22, six judges may have been unjustifiably excluded, which resulted in this case being assigned without alternative to Judge S.V. Shcherbyna,» states the High Council of Justice’s ruling.

In his explanations, Judge Serhii Shcherbyna describes this complaint as an act of revenge by the commander of a military unit, against whom he had previously heard criminal proceedings.

He also mentioned the working conditions in the autumn of 2022, when the frontline city of Mykolaiv was under shelling, so they tried to hear the case quickly due to constant air raid alerts.

«Shelling of Mykolaiv took place regularly, turning every day into a struggle for survival; the city was left without electricity and water supplies for a long time, leading to chaos and panic. In such conditions, the Zavodskyi District Court of Mykolaiv continued to operate as normal, administering justice with the aim of preventing violations of citizens’ rights to access to justice, taking into account the realities of life in a frontline city and striving to safeguard the lives and health of court staff. Judge S.V. Shcherbina, as the court’s president, dealt with matters relating to the organisation of the court’s work between August and October 2022 — preparing the building for the autumn-winter period, as the court’s uninterrupted operation was impossible without windows and with a damaged roof,» according to the judge’s explanations.

Despite the judge’s arguments, the Third Disciplinary Chamber of the High Council of Justice decided to open disciplinary proceedings. It noted that, in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, he should have recused himself.

It should be recalled that in 2025, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption identified discrepancies in Serhii Shcherbyna’s 2021 declaration. The judge declared cash savings of over 2 million hryvnias — his own and those of his wife, Svitlana. However, in its conclusion, the NACP stated that he did not have the financial means to accumulate such a sum. According to the NACP, the judge could have had no more than 1,336,305.37 hryvnias in cash. Consequently, the issue concerned the declared sum of 1,003,694.63 hryvnias.

On this basis, in January 2026, the Vitovskyi District Court opened an administrative case against Serhii Shcherbyna, the head of the Zavodskyi District Court.

However, the official himself did not agree with the conclusions of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption. In a comment to NikVesti, the judge claimed that the NACP’s observations were based on an incomplete account of his family’s income.

Ultimately, Judge Viktoria Polishko acquitted Serhii Shcherbyna in the case concerning the inaccurate declaration of over 1 million hryvnias.

Previously, NikVesti reported that in 2025, a new luxury crossover, the Land Rover Range Rover Sport, appeared in the judge’s declaration. The car cost 4.5 million hryvnias. The judge explained the purchase of the new car, worth over 4 million hryvnias, by stating that he had taken out a loan to buy it, having sold his previous Range Rover Evoque, which he had owned since 2021.