Value of institutional cooperation and challenges for criminal justice in wartime: IX Kyiv Polylogue underway at the Supreme Court

Today, 5 June 2026, the Supreme Court brought together legal professionals for the IX Kyiv Polylogue titled “Criminal Justice During Wartime: Institutional Cooperation, Accountability, and Public Trust”. The event was organized jointly with the High Council of Justice, the V.  M. Koretsky Institute of State and Law of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and the OSCE Support Programme for Ukraine.

In his welcoming address to the participants, Oleksandr Marchuk, President of the Criminal Cassation Court within the Supreme Court, stated that this year’s IX Kyiv Polylogue focuses on three key aspects of criminal justice during full-scale war: the value of institutional cooperation, the importance of accountability, and the foundations for public trust.

Oleksandr Marchuk noted that special attention at the polylogue is being paid to the effectiveness of anti-corruption justice. He also highlighted that, amid Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the volume of war-related criminal proceedings is growing daily. Relevant judicial practice is gradually taking shape, as society expects the restoration of justice, compensation for damages, and the punishment of those responsible.

Director of the V. M. Koretsky Institute of State and Law of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Vice President of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine Oleksandr Skrypniuk emphasized that the topic of the current polylogue is not merely theoretical discourse, but a matter of the survival of our state and the preservation of its legal identity. Under the conditions of full-scale Russian aggression, criminal justice has found itself on the frontline of protecting national security, public order, and human rights.

According to Oksana Kvasha, Deputy Head of the High Council of Justice, today’s event is a celebration of cooperation and trust. The national judicial system, she noted, strives to meet European standards and adopts international experience to achieve the highest level of public trust in justice. “At the same time, our European partners also have something to learn from us — the unprecedented resilience of the Ukrainian people and Ukrainian judges who have remained at their posts.”

With the start of the IX Kyiv Polylogue, participants were also welcomed by Nataliia Stupnytska, Head of the Project Unit “Democratization and Good Governance, Rule of Law and Human Rights” of the OSCE Support Programme for Ukraine. She also thanked the organizers of the polylogue for implementing such a large-scale discussion.

Within the first thematic discussion “Judicial Power in Wartime: How Not to Lose the State from Within”, Nataliia Antoniuk, Vice President of the Criminal Cassation Court within the Supreme Court, delivered the main report on the topic “From Suspicion to Cassation Ruling: Key Conclusions of the Criminal Cassation Court of the Supreme Court in Corruption Cases”.

The speaker emphasized that, under martial law, corruption is an internal enemy and the evil that destroys the institutional capacity of the state from within and undermines the foundations of national security. According to her, overcoming this phenomenon requires not only the consolidation of efforts of the entire society, but also ensuring the principles of legal certainty and the inevitability of punishment.

In her report, Nataliia Antoniuk focused on the key conclusions of the cassation instance court for 2025 concerning the criminal law qualification of corruption offences and the most common procedural issues in this category of cases.

During this thematic panel, reports on the effectiveness of criminal justice in modern conditions and the organization of the judicial system under wartime challenges were delivered by Oleksii Melnyk, Member of the High Council of Justice; Oleksandr Dudorov, Professor of the Department of Criminal Law Policy and Criminal Law at the Educational and Scientific Institute of Law of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv; and Oleksandr Marin, Associate Professor of the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty No. 1, Assistant Rector for Scientific Activity at Lviv State University of Internal Affairs.

Read more about the presentations of the speakers in the subsequent thematic discussions of the event later on the Supreme Court’s communication resources.

Watch the live stream of the IX Kyiv Polylogue via the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSj3vLQwSJ4.