Odesa Region Commercial Court Judge Serhiy Lytvynov declared a modest income and no personal vehicles for years, while concealing a common-law wife, luxury cars, international vacations, and holidays in occupied Crimea.
According to his official asset declaration, Odesa judge Serhiy Lytvynov leads a near-ascetic lifestyle. He lists only a 75-square-meter apartment gifted by his father, his judicial salary, and 400,000 UAH in cash. However, a ruling by the Public Integrity Council (PIC) highlights a complete failure to meet professional ethics and integrity standards.
Back in 2018, during a qualification assessment, Lytvynov claimed to the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ) that he no longer lived or shared a household with Yulia Ryabinina-Sklyarevska, the mother of his son. When expensive vehicles like a Lexus RX 350 and a Porsche Panamera suddenly appeared under her name, the judge claimed they were «gifts from her sailor father.» However, State Border Guard Service data presents a very different story.
From 2013 to 2022, Serhiy Lytvynov regularly traveled abroad with his common-law wife, her parents, and their children. They visited over a dozen countries, including Austria, Italy, Greece, Spain, and the Czech Republic. When crossing borders by car, the judge was listed as the driver of luxury vehicles registered under his partner’s relatives—none of which were ever disclosed in his financial declarations.
Meanwhile, his partner’s family was rapidly acquiring elite real estate in Odesa and near Kyiv. In 2019, her father took out mortgages on five residential properties near the capital simultaneously, despite family incomes failing to justify such purchases.
From the Public Integrity Council’s Conclusion:
“Systematic visits to occupied territories during wartime pose high risks to national security. A
judge who regularly visited occupied Crimea could become a potential target for blackmail or recruitment by Russian intelligence services.”
The PIC drew particular attention to the fact that in 2019—six years into the war in eastern Ukraine—Lytvynov vacationed in occupied Crimea with his common-law wife and son. His partner’s parents also visited the peninsula between 2018 and 2020.
Furthermore, Lytvynov omitted his minor sons from his 2015–2019 asset declarations as family members. When one of his sons was studying at a U.S. university, the judge failed to report where the child resided or what real estate he used.
Questionable wealth extends to the judge’s close relatives. His sister, Viktoria Lytvynova—a former judge of the Prymorskyi District Court in Odesa—is building a 238-square-meter house while declaring an annual income of just 129 UAH. She has previously received a reprimand and faced NACP administrative reports for false declarations totaling 2.8 million UAH, alongside receiving nearly 1 million UAH as a «gift» from a local businessman.
Her ex-husband, Andriy Fedusyk, a judge at the Fifth Administrative Court of Appeal, earns millions from state bonds, holds brokerage accounts in Cyprus and Belize, while his current common-law wife keeps millions in cash.