The Pechersky District Court of Kyiv changed the preventive measure for Colonel Roman Chervinsky from night house arrest to personal bond.
This was reported by his lawyer Kostyantyn Hloba.
According to him, the court satisfied the objections submitted by the defense and, when making the decision, applied the norms of the Constitution of Ukraine — "as norms of direct effect", that is, it referred directly to the Constitution.
"Today, the Constitution of Ukraine won. Based on the objections and materials I submitted, my clientʼs preventive measure was changed to a personal commitment," the lawyer wrote on Facebook.
Who is Roman Chervinsky?
Colonel Chervinsky is a former employee of SBU, the Main Intelligence Directorate (known as GUR), and the Special Operations Forces (SOF). In 2020, Chervinsky was involved in an operation to detain “Wagnerians” in Belarus. In his statement to The Washington Post and Der Spiegel, Chervinsky said that he also “planned and implemented” operations to assassinate leaders of pro-Russian militants in Ukraine and “kidnap a witness” who could confirm that Russia shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014.
On April 21, 2023, he was suspected in the case of the failed hijacking of a Russian plane. According to the investigation, he and several other servicemen decided to carry out an operation to hijack a Russian plane without the consent of state bodies and special services. SBU believes that due to their actions, in particular Chervinsky, Russia received information about the placement of Air Force pilots and Ukrainian aircraft at the Kanatove airfield in the Kirovohrad region.
Chervinsky is also suspected of fraud and extortion. In December 2023, the prosecutorʼs office reported that it suspects Chervinsky of trying to seize $100 000 of an entrepreneurʼs funds by impersonating an influential official of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine.
This concerns the events of July 2020. Chervinsky allegedly promised the businessman to resolve the issue of returning a detained batch of tobacco products to him for a certain amount. The former intelligence officer denies involvement in this crime.
Chervinsky was in pre-trial detention from April 2023 to July 2024, and since then he has been under 24-hour and then nightly house arrest.
On April 1, 2026, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine upheld Chervinskyʼs complaint and declared the norm under which he was held in custody unconstitutional. A week later, the court allowed him to return to service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
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