In 2025, only 3% of corruption cases ended with non-fines. In the first 4 months of this year, there was not a single corruption case with a real prison sentence.
This was reported by the government data analysis service Opendatabot.
The service counted 814 decisions in corruption cases in the first four months of 2026. This is 27% less than in the same period last year. Over 90% of all court decisions concern problems with declarations.
Instead, cases directly related to bribery account for only 6% of all decisions. Another 3% are related to conflicts of interest.
Opendatabot
93% of cases in 2026 were administrative. Of the 814 decisions, only 52 concerned criminal offenses, while 762 were administrative.
All court decisions this year ended with fines. No imprisonment, community service, or restriction of freedom for the first 4 months of 2026. The smallest fine was UAH 850, the largest was UAH 34 000.
One of the maximum fines was imposed on a woman who tried to “negotiate” with a border guard for €300 at the “Mamalyga” checkpoint in Chernivtsi region to allow her to travel abroad without hindrance. She handed over the money in her office, but the officer refused the bribe and reported the crime. The court fined her UAH 34 000, and the €300 itself was confiscated for the benefit of the state.
The same fine was received by a serviceman from Cherkasy region who, after an accident in a service car, tried to buy off patrol officers for $100-200 while drunk.
This year, the courts in the Lviv region were the most active in punishing violators: every 10th court decision on corruption was recorded in this region (79 cases). This is followed by the Dnipropetrovsk region (67 decisions), Kharkiv region (56), Kyiv region (54), and Odesa region (48).
Opendatabot
In general, this year, 27% fewer court decisions on corruption and corruption-related offenses have been made than during the same period last year. At the same time, 2025 was a record: 4 086 decisions were made by courts for the entire year. This is 2.2 times more than in 2024.
Although the vast majority of sentences in 2025 also ended with fines (97% of cases), the register also contained much harsher sentences. Last year, courts imposed real prison terms, community service, restrictions of liberty, and probation.
The largest fine of 2025 — over UAH 1.24 million — was received by a Kyiv lawyer who sold men schemes to evade mobilization. For $15,000, he promised help with updating data in the TRC and fictitious employment for reserving. Despite the scale of the scheme, the court limited itself to a fine and lifted the seizure of a Chevrolet Camaro, an apartment, land, and over 1 255 m² of commercial premises.
Instead, the harshest sentence — 10 years in prison — was given to a sergeant of an assault company in the Sumy region. He stole and sold military optics worth over UAH 4.5 million, including thermal imagers and night vision binoculars. Investigators managed to return some of the equipment to the military, but the court found the crime particularly serious due to the appropriation of property of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the war.
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