You're reading: Prosecutor in charge of Crimea cases selected for top anti-corruption job

Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin on Nov. 30 appointed Nazar Kholodnytsky as the nation’s top anti-corruption prosecutor and a deputy prosecutor general.

Kholodnytsky, 30, has worked as first deputy prosecutor of Crimea since December 2014.

Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office of Crimea had to move to Kyiv after Russia’s annexation of the peninsula in 2014. He had been investigating the Kremlin’s crimes there.

On Nov. 27, a commission appointed by Shokin and the Verkhovna Rada submitted a short-list of candidates for the anti-corruption prosecutor’s job that included two people – Kholodnytsky and rank-and-file prosecutor Maxim Hryshchuk.

Critics were unhappy with Shokin’s choice, saying that Hryshchuk has proved his moral integrity by fighting for Ukraine and defending Donetsk Airport from Russian-separatist forces.

However, civil society scored a victory when the commission rejected Deputy Prosecutor General Roman Hovda, a controversial protégé of Shokin who was seen as dependent on him.

As the anti-corruption prosecutor, Kholodnytsky will work in tandem with Artem Sytnyk, head of the newly-created National Anti-Corruption Bureau.

The creation of an independent anti-corruption body is a key demand by Ukraine’s civil society and its Western partners.

So far, Ukraine has failed to create a functioning law enforcement system capable of punishing corruption.

“Holodnytsky will be judged by his results,” Vitaly Shabunin, a member of the commission and head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center’s management board, told the Kyiv Post. “He’s not explicitly dependent on the Prosecutor General’s Office or the presidential administration. Now he’s independent but let’s see what will happen later.”

Shabunin said that the commission had found no evidence of links between Kholodnytsky and any prosecutorial clans, including Shokin’s.

Moreover, there are no problems in his property declaration, Shabunin said earlier.

He also said that Holodnytsky had demonstrated his professionalism and independence when he investigated a land dispute in Kyiv Oblast’s Kyiv-Svyatoshin District that involved members of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions.

Holodnytsky worked as a prosecutor in the Kyiv-Svyatoshin District in 2006-2014.

He was also an aide to then-First Deputy Prosecutor General Mykola Holomsha in March-December 2014 and was appointed first deputy prosecutor of Crimea in December 2014.

In his latest job, he was in charge of state treason cases against Crimean lawmakers, judges and prosecutors who supported Russian aggression.

Kholodnytsky was born in Lviv and has a master’s degree in law from Lviv National University.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected].