The Kyiv District Administrative Court has fully dismissed a lawsuit filed by Dmytro Petrov, former deputy head of the Department for International Legal Cooperation at the Office of the Prosecutor General (PGO). Petrov sought to recover severance pay and average earnings for an alleged delay in settlement upon his dismissal. Judge Olena Khoma ruled the plaintiff’s demands completely groundless.
The former law enforcement official attempted to claim over 48,000 UAH in severance pay from the OPG, alongside average earnings for the entire duration of the allegedly delayed final settlement.
During the court proceedings, it was revealed that Dmytro Petrov had already received substantial payouts from the state. Under a previous case (No. 320/5210/21), more than 941,000 UAH in average earnings had already been recovered in his favor for the period of forced non-employment between November 2019 and July 2021.
The court concluded that a second payout for the exact same timeframe is unlawful.
«Repeated recovery of average earnings for one and the same period constitutes double liability, which directly contradicts Article 61 of the Constitution of Ukraine,» the court judgment states.
Furthermore, case materials evidence that the Office of the Prosecutor General executed a factual and complete financial settlement with the former employee back on December 24, 2019. Consequently, there are no legal grounds for any additional accruals past that date.
Dmytro Petrov held a senior position in the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine, which was later reformed into the PGO. In November 2019, he was dismissed under the Law «On the Prosecution Service» as part of the country’s lustration policy (cleansing of power).
However, the former official launched a large-scale legal campaign to appeal the decision. Between 2020 and 2021, he managed to secure temporary reinstatement through the courts, and by 2024, he successfully regained employment within the OPG.
Prior to his return to the prosecution service, Petrov spent an extended period as deputy head of the State Migration Service (SMS) in Kyiv and the Kyiv Oblast. According to journalistic investigations conducted during his tenure at the migration service, the official was allegedly implicated in corruption schemes involving illegal migration and the receipt of illicit benefits.
The official has repeatedly drawn media scrutiny due to a stark mismatch between his official income and lifestyle. His assets disclosed in various annual declarations included:
Luxury real estate and high-end vehicles;
Cash savings amounting to 10 million UAH.
A fresh wave of public backlash emerged after the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) restricted access to or removed his asset declarations from the public registry, drawing heavy criticism from anti-corruption activists and media representatives.