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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Who Ukrainian “justice” punishes: how and why a whistleblower in the charity aid embezzlement case ended up in a penal colony
The story of how the Ukrainian justice system is persecuting a person who exposed the embezzlement of charity aid for the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the Estonian people.
In 2023, a scandal erupted in Estonia over the illegal use of donations received by a well-known Estonian charity fund.
At that time, local parliament deputy and head of the charity fund “Slava Ukraini,” Johanna-Maria Lehtme, was accused of embezzling 1,5 million euros.
The Estonian fund transferred those funds to the Lviv company IC Construction, which is linked to the charity fund of former Lviv deputy mayor Hennadiy Vaskiv.
The abuse of charity funds became known thanks to Oleksandr Chernov (in the photo), who was the director and owner of IC Construction until December 2022.
Chernov reported the schemes connected to the fund and provided information about suspicious transactions. This prompted the start of investigations in Estonia and Ukraine and stopped the illegal operations.
However, this exposure did not lead to the punishment of the perpetrators; instead, Chernov himself ended up in a penal colony.
❗From the start of the investigation until the DBR’s notification of suspicion, it took as many as 20 months, during which Vaskiv successfully fled abroad.
Vaskiv was recently detained in Austria, but there is a high likelihood he will get off scot-free, since Vienna has rarely granted extradition requests.
If Ukrainian law enforcement effectively allowed the suspect in the charity embezzlement to flee abroad, things were completely different for the whistleblower.
Chernov was to testify to Estonian law enforcement about IC Construction’s activities, but on the eve of his trip, in a strange coincidence, Ukrainian law enforcement found a weapon in his possession.
It sounds extremely odd, since no person who was going abroad to give testimony in a few days would keep ammunition in the trunk of their car.
Over three years investigators still have not established when and where Chernov acquired the weapon, but that did not prevent the judge of the Pavlohrad City District Court from finding Chernov guilty of possessing and purchasing explosive devices.
⚠️ The court gave him a suspended sentence, but the Dnipro Court of Appeal issued a new decision, sentencing him to 4 years of actual imprisonment.
Chernov himself denied any involvement with the found weapon and insisted that it had been planted on him, but the judges simply agreed with the prosecutor’s baseless assumptions.
As a result, Chernov has already been serving his sentence in a penal colony for more than 5 months 🤯
The Supreme Court is to put an end to this resonant case; the next hearing is scheduled for 26 October.
However, it is already obvious that the persecution of the whistleblower casts a shadow on the justice system in Ukraine, on the state as a whole, and on the willingness of citizens of other countries to support our country.
This is why we constantly speak about the need to reform the DBR, and to purge the prosecutor’s office and the courts.
It is clear that all this resonates with the demands of the European Union, because, as this case and the case of protection of call centers have shown, this is about embezzlement of EU citizens’ funds.
What is wrong with this case against Chernov and why it may be revenge — in a column by an Estonian volunteer for Ukrainska Pravda: https://www.pravda.com.ua/columns/2026/10/22/8059075/
❗Friends, please share this post, because publicity may at least partially help establish justice.
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