“As it happens, I don’t own any real estate,” Anatolii Potetii, a former chairman of one Poltava court, makes a sad remark. His declaration looks almost empty: one old vehicle in his ownership, another one is rented, and no house or any other real estate whatsoever. One gets an impression that he lives on the street.
There are tens of thousands of state officials lust like this judge in Ukraine. Although the law requires that officials should declare any type of real estate occupancy – not only ownership, but also renting or living with someone rent-free, they leave a “real estate” entry in the declaration unfilled. According to NGL.media, almost 46 thousand Ukrainian state officials “declare homelessness” for at least two years, in the course of the previous year, there were over 64 thousand officials.
Such declarations don’t reflect the property status of any state official, thus violating the very essence of public declarations.
Real estate in declarations
Every year, state officials should fill in a property declaration for the previous year on the website of the National Agency of Corruption Prevention (NACP). It consists of 16 sections: the information about the declarant, his family members, income, savings, loans, membership in public organizations, as well as movable and immovable property.
The declarant is to specify all the real estate that is related to them in any way: houses, apartments, land plots, garages, parking places, and even sheds. And it doesn’t matter whether he owns this real estate, or rents it, or even uses it free of charge.
“Declarants can’t leave the ‘Real estate objects’ section of the declaration empty. No declarant can be without any actual place of residence,” Serhii Mytkalyk, the chairman of the board of the NGO “Anti-Corruption Headquarters”, explains.
Homeless judges
Oksana Kryvorot, a judge of the Solomianskyi court in Kyiv, has practically been homeless for eight years – at least, one may get this impression from her property declarations. Starting in 2017, she has not declared any real estate in her ownership, rent, or use.
At the same time, Kryvorot indicates her place of registration – the village of Khotiv near Kyiv, where her relatives own immovable property. In particular, her mother owned a land plot with a house on the central street, and her brother and sister-in-law own some land nearby.
In the conversation with NGL.media, Oksana Kryvorot insisted that she doesn’t own any real estate because “she lives alone and doesn’t need anything”. She says that, mainly, she either lives in the house of her recently deceased mother in Khotiv or stays with her friend for a night in Kyiv.
“I used to either come here to my mother in Khotiv, or spend a night somewhere,” the judge said.
Oksana Kryvorot doesn’t believe that she is violating the rules of filling in property declarations. In her words, in recent years, she really hasn’t had just one place of residence.
She isn’t the only one like that – NGL.media found at least seven more judges without any residential property A total of 2.5 thousand employees of the judicial system haven’t mentioned any real estate in their declarations. Considering that Ukrainian judges earn at least UAH 100 thousand a month, it is too unlikely.
For instance, Diana Palianychko, the judge of the Industrial court in Kharkiv, who was appointed to her position in the summer of 2024. She has been living and working in Kharkiv for almost two years, yet there is no real estate in her declaration.
In the conversation with NGL.media, she explained that she rented an apartment in Kharkiv. “Of course, I have been renting an apartment based on the agreement. I thought one should specify only the property that belongs to you personally. My mistake, I will amend the declaration,” Palianychko said.
Where should the home cinema be placed?
31-year-old Denys Liubchenko became a deputy of the Kyiv city council in October 2023. He is an active member of the European Solidarity party, previously he headed the Kyiv branch of Solidarna Molod, a youth wing of the party. In 2019, the law enforcement agencies conducted a search at his place because of the video clip, in which the then-candidate for the presidential elections, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, was allegedly hit by a truck.
In his property declaration for 2025, Denys Liubchenko stated USD 68 thousand, EUR 60 thousand, and UAH 77 thousand in savings. Another UAH 900 thousand were lent by the deputy to his company, Suchasni Tekhnolohii Elektronnoi Komercii [Modern Technologies of Electronic Commerce], which, according to YouControl data, is a part of Ukrprominvest business group of Petro Poroshenko.
Denys Liubchenko declares a lavish Rolex watch worth almost UAH 265 thousand, a TV set worth UAH 269 thousand, and home cinema worth UAH 306 thousand, yet he hasn’t stated any housing object in his declarations in the four recent years. Why would a person without any home need a home cinema?
Liubchenko promised NGL.media to explain this paradox, but switched his phone off after our call. He didn’t reply to our written requests either.
Who doesn’t declare real estate most often?
Among almost 46 thousand state officials who haven’t declared any housing at least for the last two years, the largest group consists of representatives of local authorities and municipal enterprises (9.5 thousand). They are followed by law enforcement representatives and servicemen (7.3 thousand each), almost a thousand and a half are employees of ministries and subordinate territorial bodies and services. No real estate was declared by nine employees of the President’s Office, either.
Among law enforcement officers, the last group of declarants without real estate are policemen and patrolmen. Yet, there are also employees of other bodies, like 14 employees of the Economic Security Bureau (ESB) and six specialists of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI).
For instance, Andrii Serheiev, the deputy head of one ESB department, stopped declaring any real estate since 2024. In January 2024, he presented a share in the apartment in Kyiv to his mother, and since then, he has owned no real estate.
“The apartment belongs to my mother. Nobody told me that it had to be done. I own no real estate – that’s a fact. I live in this apartment, and my mother moved back to her motherland, to Pereyaslav area,” Serheiev explained.
In his words, he made a mistake because he was filling it in “by his old habits”, though the requirement to state all the property being in use has been valid for a long time.
Difficulties with declaring
According to the declarations, Anatolii Potetii, the former chairman of the Poltava district court, owns only an old vehicle, UAZ of 1979. Previously, Potetii declared renting a room with an area of 12 sq.m. in Poltava, and starting in 2022, he hasn’t stated any real estate object.
In the conversation with NGL.media, he insisted that he actually doesn’t own any real estate and lives in a rented room in the dormitory.
“At first, I lived in one room, now I live in another one. I reside there most of the time, but since I resigned, I go there and back more often,” Anatolii Potetii said.
The judge’s notice of resignation was approved in July 2025. In Potetii’s words, he got tired of his intense working schedule, so he decided to live for himself. Yet, he complained that instead of resting, he had to go to court – he believes that the amount of his permanent allowance was accrued incorrectly.
Previously, the NACP paid attention to his use of Renault Duster of 2020, declared by the judge since 2023. Since Potetii paid only UAH 10 thousand instead of almost 100 thousand for rent, in the NACP opinion, he actually got a precious gift.
“The NACP addressed this situation in a somewhat peculiar way. I was using a vehicle on a paid basis, but for some reason, it didn’t suit them,” Potetii said. At the end of 2025, the Shevchenkivskyi court of Poltava closed this case.
The retired judge explains that his incomplete declaration was due to difficulties while filling it in.
“Everything is very complicated with our declarations. It is very unclear what should be stated. Today you declare something – next time they will write to you that it is now wrong,” Anatolii Potetii believes.
Checking declarations
One of the NACP tasks is to check declarations to see whether officials really stated all their property and finances correctly and whether they tried to hide anything. There is a special algorithm to do it.
“This is an automated system that allows detecting potential risks using specified indicators. These indicators are often called “red flags”, since they signal possible violations and the need to conduct a more detailed check of the relevant declaration,” Serhii Mytkalyk, an expert in declarations, explains.
In Mytkalyk’s words, the absence of any immovable property in the declaration may be a risk indicator. At the same time, the decision about conducting a check is usually made when the system detects several “red flags” at once.
“I personally don’t know any cases when it was due to the absence of any data about real estate in the declaration that a check was initiated, a report was drawn up, or a criminal case was launched,” Serhii Mytkalyk stated.
Depending on the value of the property, inaccurate declaring may result in disciplinary (up to UAH 450 thousand), administrative (up to UAH 2.2 mln) or criminal responsibility. At the same time, the court takes into consideration whether a person has deliberately stated the complete information in the declaration.
“It relates to deliberately stating inaccurate data in the declaration or intentionally failing to submit a declaration. That’s why a check is to clarify the circumstances, including getting explanations from the declarant: Is this a case of poor knowledge of the law, or, on the contrary, a person tried to conceal the relevant property intentionally,” Mytkalyk explains.
However, the NACP cannot process all the declarations. Every year, about 630 thousand declarations are submitted, yet the NACP analyses only about 1,200 declarations in the framework of complete checks.
“The NACP often acts on the assumption that such violations [a failure to state complete information about real estate] are conditioned not by the intention to conceal the information, but insufficient understanding of legal requirements. In particular, there is a common false practice when declarants believe that real estate objects are to be declared only if they own these, and they don’t consider the duty to state the objects in use,” an expert in declarations says.
In response to NGL.media’s inquiry, the NACP told us that they had not checked the declarations of any state officials, mentioned in this publication.
Authors Mariia Horban and Maksym Pikho, editor Oleh Onysko, translation Nelya Plakhota, illustration Victoria Demchuk
