Judge Tatyana Veselskaya resigned. She is known for allowing rallies to be banned in Kyiv in 2012, declaring expensive pots and, in general, property for which she did not have the means. Also, the servant of Themis ensured that she was given the best service apartment, which she immediately privatized. Now the judge will receive hundreds of thousands of hryvnias monthly from the Ukrainian budget for life.
A judge may resign honorably after completing 15 years of judicial experience and in the absence of open disciplinary complaints that could lead to dismissal. In retirement, a judge retains immunity and is retained by the state for life. The amount of this monthly maintenance depends on salary and length of service - the more years, the larger the amount of payments, which can reach hundreds of thousands of hryvnias per month.
Tatyana Veselskaya resigned on March 19, 2024 from the position of judge of the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine.
Judge Veselskaya was once remembered for declaring a set of expensive saucepans in 2016. Analysts from the PROSUD project who discovered this wrote that for the first time in the entire period of analyzing judges’ declarations they saw someone mentioning this in a document.
“According to the law, valuable movable property whose value exceeds 100 subsistence minimums established for able-bodied persons as of January 1 of the reporting year is subject to declaration. That is, the cost of each of these things must exceed UAH 137,000,” writes PROSUD.
In addition to pots, Veselskaya declared clothes, furniture, Prada and LOUIS VUITTON handbags, paintings, jewelry and watches. According to analysts, the cost of all these declared items could be UAH 1.781 million.
In 2016, Veselskaya also declared that she saved 45 thousand dollars and 775 thousand hryvnia. PROSUD writes that the judge would not have been able to save so much money and buy all these valuables for UAH 1.781 million.
Analysts also note that in 2010, the Supreme Administrative Court allocated Veselskaya an apartment with a total area of 103.98 square meters. m. The judge received this apartment for a family of three – Veselskaya and her two daughters.
This housing was just being built and as a result construction stopped. “Citizens who buy unfinished apartments often suffer from this. But judges are not ordinary citizens,” writes PROSUD.
In 2016, Veselskaya, instead of an unfinished apartment, the court provided her with another three-room apartment with a total area of 104.10 square meters. m. The legislation does not provide for such an exchange, so at first the Pechersk administration refused to introduce a corresponding order.
“However, Veselskaya not only did not give up the apartment in favor of those who really needed it, but also filed a lawsuit in the District Administrative Court of Kyiv against the Pechersk district administration,” analysts write.
In the end, Veselskaya won the case and received a new apartment for herself and her daughters. By the way, the judge at that time began working for the High Qualifications Commission of Judges and should have received enough money to provide herself with housing. The judge's daughters were not living with her at the time.
Almost immediately after receiving an apartment in Kyiv, Veselskaya privatized it, but registered the property not in her name, but in her 30-year-old daughter, who lived in Odessa. Among the decisions of retired judge Veselskaya there are some rather dubious ones. For example, in 2012, the Kiev City Council asked the court to ban picketing of the Cabinet of Ministers. In its lawsuit, the City Council referred to norms dating back to the times of the USSR, when rallies must be warned 10 days in advance.
The Kiev Court of Appeal refused to ban the rallies, but this decision was appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court. Judge Veselskaya was on the panel that sided with the Kyiv City Council.
Despite this decision and problems with the declarations, Veselskaya passed the qualification assessment and even became the one who conducted this assessment.
Activists also complained about Veselskaya’s work at the VKKS. She got into a scandal during the selection of judges for the Administrative Court of Cassation. Members of the Higher Qualification Committee who assessed the candidates were accused of promoting the “right” candidates to the Administrative Court of Cassation.
After this, the Higher Qualification Court decided to completely replace the collegium, and interviews of candidates for judges at the Administrative Court of Cassation were conducted by another collegium. Veselskaya and others were replaced.
Judge Veselskaya has now completed her career and joined the honorably retired judges held by Ukraine during the war.
