On 18 March, Ukraine’s High Council of Justice announced it had dismissed Pavlo Vovk, a judge and former head of the now-defunct Kyiv District Administrative Court (OASK).

Vovk had led the court for over a decade. When he held his position, the OASK judges issued several controversial rulings, including the 2013 decision to allow the dismantling of Euromaidan protesters’ barricades on Kyiv’s Independence Square, just two days before Berkut riot police attempted to forcibly clear the square.

The protests ended with the ousting of the pro-Russian president, Victor Yanukovych, who later fled to Russia, stealing millions from Ukraine’s budget, Slidstvo Info reports.

Vovk was accused of a “significant disciplinary offense” under the Ukrainian Constitution and dismissed following a ruling by the Third Disciplinary Chamber of the High Council of Justice, according to Hromadske.

In 2020, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) accused Vovk and members of the OASK of attempts to seize judicial power and issuing politically motivated rulings benefiting elites and business interests.

Then, the Ukrainian investigators released recordings of conversations between the court’s judges as evidence of misconduct. The agency completed its investigation in March 2021 and made the case files available to the lawyers.

NABU accused the defense of delaying the case and claimed that Vovk and other judges avoided procedural responsibilities, with Vovk repeatedly skipping court hearings. He argued that he did not consider himself a suspect.

In April 2021, Ukraine’s parliament registered a presidential bill to liquidate the OASK. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed establishing a new body — the Kyiv City District Administrative Court — to replace it.

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