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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
❗️ Double standards of the judicial elite: members of the HRC held a banquet on the day of mass deaths of Kyiv residents
The morning of 20 August began for the capital with nine hours of horror. Another massive enemy attack left destruction and human tragedies in several parts of the city at once — in the Solomianskyi, Sviatoshynskyi, and Darnytskyi districts. When the first rays of sunlight pierced the thick smoke over the ruined buildings, rescuers and ordinary citizens, risking their lives, continued to clear the rubble. According to official KMVA data, this attack claimed the lives of 15 people, including children, and the following day, 21 August, the city was officially declared a day of mourning.
But just a few kilometers from the places where people were helping pull neighbors from partially destroyed entrances, a completely different life was raging. In the very center of the capital, at the upscale Mario Ristorante Italiano on Pavlo Skoropadskyi Street, a lavish banquet began to the echo of sirens and the wail of air-raid alarms.
The occasion for the loud gathering was the end of the four-year term of HRC member Dmytro Lukyanov, elected back in 2022 by the quota for scientific and educational legal institutions. Although 20 August fell on a Thursday — an official working day when the HRC should have been resolving the fate of numerous stalled court cases and considering disciplinary complaints — representatives of the judicial leadership largely left their offices.
Key faces of Ukrainian justice arrived at the lavish celebration in luxury cars, as confirmed by available photo and video materials. HRC Chair Hryhoriy Usyk — the person who by his position should serve as the chief benchmark of integrity for the entire system — arrived at the restaurant in an official vehicle.
Also joining the feast were HRC members Mykola Moroz, Oksana Kvasha, Vitaliy Makhinchuk, and Khmelnytskyi Court of Appeal judge Tetyana Spiridonova, who had taken her oath only a few months earlier, pledging to conscientiously adhere to professional ethics. Other council members recorded among the guests included Yuliya Bokova, Tetyana Bondarenko, Olha Popikova, Olena Kovbiich, as well as Roman Maselek, who, although he finished work at the HRC a few days earlier, remained part of its informal circle.
The scale and format of the event were underscored by the restaurant menu, which offered guests oysters for 200–230 hryvnias each, antipasti with truffle honey for 770 hryvnias, salmon tartare and veal carpaccio. A portion of the “Ribeye Argentina” steak cost 2 190 hryvnias, and a fruit plate was nearly two thousand. Special attention goes to the restaurant’s wine list, where a bottle of premium champagne Veuve Clicquot is priced at 9 000 hryvnias, and Cristal Louis Roederer reaches 34 800 hryvnias.
Such behavior by officials in the midst of a citywide tragedy provokes not just deep outrage but outright disgust. The High Council of Justice is a body that daily considers cases of “unethical behavior outside of service” by ordinary judges. In its official decisions, the HRC has repeatedly emphasized that any actions of a judge, both on the job and off duty, must meet the highest standards and not arouse doubt in society, since improper behavior undermines the authority of the entire judicial branch…
However, the conspicuous leisure of its leaders during the deaths of fellow citizens confirms the existence of deep double standards within the system, demonstrating its complete detachment from the realities of war.
