"Spanish shame" of the fugitive lawyers

Now, when Ukraine sheds blood once again in its history, defending its right to be truly free and independent, true signs of civic position have become love for one’s native land, loyalty to one’s people, and even sacrifice.

Numerous examples of heroism and self-sacrifice by the defenders of Ukraine captivate and move the entire world, but there is another side to reality – the escape of men of conscription age abroad, sometimes using false documents or claiming unfitness for service. Some resort to fictitious disability certificates or seek refuge behind various privileges, and it is especially disgraceful when men hide behind children.

The latest example: at the end of November 2024, under the procedural guidance of the Halytskyi District Prosecutor’s Office of the city of Lviv, a 38-year-old resident of Odesa was notified of suspicion. She is charged with facilitating the illegal transfer of a person across the state border of Ukraine and forgery of seals and official documents (part 3 of article 332, part 3 of article 358 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). According to the investigation, in 2024, the resident of Odesa helped a conscript evade mobilization and cross the state border without hindrance using a forged document for a monetary reward. The criminal scheme involved the creation of a fictitious birth certificate for a non-existent child. She valued her services at 14,500 UAH, and almost 300 fake birth certificates of children of various ages were found at her home.

It is embarrassing for such people; such shameful acts are outrageous, but the true «Spanish shame» is caused by those who should stand guard over truth and law, legality, and justice, because they are lawyers by profession, but instead use their knowledge and skills to deceive the system and also flee abroad.

How the "Devil’s Advocate" went underground in Alicante

One of the indicative examples of a lawyer’s escape was the story of Ihor Cherezov.

Cherezov himself is a notorious lawyer, known for scandals related to his professional activities, and has repeatedly been the focus of journalistic investigations and attention from bar associations.

For example, a publication on the site "Pryamyi" mentions that I. Cherezov has repeatedly been the defender of persons suspected of treason against Ukraine. This defender was even called the "devil’s advocate," emphasizing that among his clients were former high-ranking officials and individuals who openly supported Russian aggression.

Journalistic investigations highlighted other aspects of Cherezov’s activities, including possible violations of ethical standards. According to ZNAJ.ua, he was suspected of extorting money from clients and manipulating evidence in court cases.

In an investigation conducted by Nashi Groshi, it is mentioned that to ensure favorable court decisions, the scandalous lawyer might have used his connections in governmental structures.

In the end, it is no surprise that in response to numerous complaints from deceived clients, the bar associations conducted a review of Ihor Cherezov’s professional conduct, resulting in Advokat Post reporting that his license was temporarily suspended. Later, I. Cherezov’s license was completely annulled by the decision of the CBA Chernivtsi region № 160 from 08.05.2023.

It is worth noting that it was due to Cherezov’s "submission" that some lawyers, primarily Illya Kostin (signed the petition №171) and some mercenary infocigarettes like Iryna Fedoriv, after a few months, began to actively use the main points of this petition in their publications and blogs. And as the main proof, they inevitably used a photo from Cherezov’s Facebook page, where the leadership of the bar stood next to Medvedchuk… back in the early 2000s.

Anyway, the call to «destroy» the bar was answered by only 263 people (out of almost 70,000 lawyers), so for Cherezov, all that remained was to continue fighting with the bar community on the Internet. Because, you see, Cherezov could not and, in fact, did not want to fight in any other way, having taken a convenient (and most importantly, safe) position in the Spanish city of Alicante since March 2022.

Cherezov himself explained his escape abroad like this (language of the original, that is, let’s emphasize – in Russian): "Everyone should do what they do. I don’t see the point in sitting in the insanely expensive Zakarpattia."

In fact, everyone is taken into the Territorial Defence Forces, and into the Armed Forces of Ukraine as well (both in 2022 and now), as his followers even told the budget-conscious family man. However, Cherezov preferred to brush off everyone ("I’ll take care of my family and come back to complete the story") and tell tales about some "secret mission" he was on abroad. What that mission is, no one still knows. And yes, even after the family was settled, Cherezov had no desire to return to Ukraine.

But he joined as a partner in a local millionaire’s club (which looks like an ordinary scam office for people who like to win various awards, in which, by the way, Cherezov himself, as they say, has honed his skills), presenting himself as a very famous lawyer from Ukraine… Let us remind that he is not a lawyer, but just a fugitive and evader, though indeed from Ukraine.

As for the way of escape, Ihor Cherezov did not follow the standard procedure.

Let us remind you of one story.

According to information published by the «Ukrainian Pravda» , businessman Hennadiy Boholyubov, the founder of the informal business group "Pryvat" and longtime partner of Ihor Kolomoiskyi, left the territory of Ukraine on the night of June 23-24, 2024, by a Ukrainian Railways train. According to the State Bureau of Investigations, Boholyubov left the country by using the passport of another person – 67-year-old Mykola Syumak from the Volyn region. In suspicion to border guard Makarenko, it is described how the border crossing took place (quote preserving all features of the original text): "Understanding that in case of presentation by Boholyubov of the lost Ukrainian citizen’s passport for traveling abroad in the name of Syumak Mykola, he would be exposed by the border guard, Volodymyr Makarenko, staying on the service post at the "Yahodyn" checkpoint near the administrative building on June 24, 2024, at 03:55 am, without going into the coupe, ordered his subordinate, border guard inspector Olha Buhaychuk, who was carrying out passport checks of persons, not to enter the last compartment, assuring her that in order to establish the validity of passport documents and their belonging to the citizen who presented them, he personally verified the passport data and supporting documents of the citizens in that coupe."

The most interesting part of this story is that, as rumors in law enforcement circles suggest, Hennadiy Boholiubov’s escape was aided by none other than former Kyiv lawyer Ihor Cherezov – he still had connections with border guards from 2022 when he himself crossed the border illegally.

On Facebook, Cherezov sought to convince everyone that he left legally ("Yes, I will say right away, I crossed the border without ’pull’ and bribes, legally: I wasn’t drafted due to health reasons, and I have three children").

Evidently, with these words, the ex-lawyer wanted to remind that a father of three or more minor children can leave Ukraine, even if children are from different marriages (Cherezov’s youngest daughter was born a few months before the war began). But there’s a nuance. When crossing the border, it’s important to document both the absence of unpaid alimony and the fact of maintaining or raising ALL children. Here, Ihor Cherezov had clear problems because it’s known that he disclaimed one of his children from another marriage, so he could only substantiate caring for two children, which was clearly insufficient for legally crossing the border.

Incidentally, this was first reported by lawyer Ihor Tsyhankov: "Undoubtedly, Cherezov had no grounds to leave the country. The presentation of the corresponding number of children and everything else did not give him grounds for departure. This is his personal data, but it’s common knowledge that regarding relatives, he behaves quite aggressively and isn’t a person who maintains such relations with children that would give him a reason for departure."

What’s next for Ihor Cherezov? Nothing unexpected – he’s basking in the sun, slowly getting into millionaire circles, and criticizing, continuing to tarnish his colleagues.

Professor of "souvenir" affairs

Another interesting "Spaniard" who successfully left during Ukraine’s full-scale war turned out to be Kharkiv lawyer Oleksandr Drozdov.

Unlike his Kyiv colleague, Drozdov diligently maintained the myths about the "true lawyer," and recently, on social media, he posts almost exclusively religious images and biblical themes, presumably proving the purity of his thoughts.

From the moment of obtaining the right to practice law in 2007, Drozdov was immediately elected a member of the Kharkiv Regional Branch of the Union of Lawyers of Ukraine and a member of the Association of Lawyers of Ukraine. He later became the secretary of the Kharkiv Region Council of Lawyers, head of the Committee on Free Legal Aid within the Bar Association of Ukraine, president of the Association of Lawyers of Ukraine, head of the High Qualification Disciplinary Bar Commission, member of the VQDC, and even became one of the co-authors of the Rules of Lawyer Ethics.

By the way, in one of the autobiographies submitted in candidacies for positions, Oleksandr Drozdov boasted that he had never been brought to criminal responsibility and had not even received suspicion. Unbiased observers might be intrigued as to why a lawyer mentions not only responsibility but also suspicion?

It turned out that Drozdov was once suspected of bribery, as detailed in an article by "Ukrainian News."

In short, Oleksandr Drozdov was a figure in a criminal case involving documented bribes to one of the Kharkiv judges ever since 2012.

The initiator of the bribe was allegedly the lawyer himself, who, upon learning about the judge’s arrest, wrote a "confession."

However, when the judge managed to build a strong defence and the case closure was on the table, the lawyer immediately claimed that under pressure from the SSU, he "slandered" the judge and that the money given to the judge in the SBU’s video was not a bribe but … souvenir money.

In fact, the funds were far from souvenir when the lawyer attempted to bribe border guards, persuading them to let him cross the border with his wife Olena and two sons (Volodymyr and Vladyslav). There was no clear information about the date and place of birth of Oleksandr’s daughter, but it is known definitively that Olena Valeriivna gave birth in Barcelona. Again, the justice paradox of Cherezov worked: «Lawyers can leave the country even with two children».

And by the way, it is not excluded that Drozdov also "worked" along already established connections.

One more amusing tidbit from the biographies of infamous individuals. Have you heard of "The Joker"? Well, it turns out that the owner of the "The Joker" Telegram channel and 153rd in the electoral list of the "Servant of the People" party, Roman Kravets, is the same person who went abroad eight times during the full-scale invasion. The 29-year-old previously claimed he crossed the border through the "Shlyakh" system as a volunteer, but by the summer of 2024, Kravets had obtained what is known as a white ticket, exempting him from military service. This was reported in an investigation published by Hromadske on November 20.

Up until June 2024, Kravets Roman traveled abroad five times, later – three more times. The last foreign trip of Roman Kravets lasted from September 22 to October 3, 2024.

Roman Kravets left abroad thanks to a "white ticket" that appeared in the summer, and on July 16, 2024, the Holosiivskyi District Territorial Center for Recruitment and Social Support removed Kravets from military registration. Hromadske adds that in October 2024, the State Bureau of Investigations conducted 24 searches in this TRC and seized over $1.2 million in cash from employees. Three employees are suspected of helping military registrants evade mobilization.

Journalists note that from June 20 to July 20, Kravets was abroad, and the man’s signature on the RTRC document does not match his signature on a contract for an apartment in Dnipro at the beginning of 2023. Kravets himself claimed that he allegedly did not buy this apartment, and the signature was forged. Later Roman Kravets provided Hromadske with a photo from the hospital, of allegedly passing a medical commission, not in July, but on May 29.

Rumor has it that the "Servant of the People" deputy did indeed flee Ukraine, and he was helped by none other than Drozdov himself! Well, how can you call it "rumor"? Anonymous interlocutors in law enforcement assure that it was Oleksandr Drozdov who facilitated the escape of Roman Kravets (if an explanation is needed about anonymity in this case, then it means no explanation is needed).

Is this the case or not, but it won’t be possible to ask the professor of Barcelona University anytime soon (the time wasn’t wasted in citizenship), as he too is not in a hurry to return from Spain to Ukraine.

This is how war makes half-shadows shine…

People who claim to be called the elite turn out to be nobodies. And it doesn’t matter the prestigious education, positions mean nothing – what matters is essence and entity. Either you’re a man – and in this case, you’re on the frontline or in the rear doing everything possible to win over the ancient fierce enemy that will stop at nothing. Or you’re a Kravets (lowercase for an honorable and complex profession), or a conditional drozdov – in reality, a coward and traitor, even if in the not-too-distant past you were a member of various respected institutions and bodies, or a cherezov flaunting his cunning.

Unfortunately, there are still a few such petty and despicable individuals, even in the bar community. Many or few? Even one shouldn’t be, as such clever and brisk lawyers disgrace everyone with a lawyer’s diploma, lawyer’s license, and, in general, anyone involved in the legal field. Some dashed off to Portugal, some landed in Spain, some have their hearts set on sunny Italy, while others are still carried by ill-fated waves, unable to find a place. But how many of those, with the same diplomas from those same universities and the same positions, remain a memory for their children, wives, mothers? He didn’t run, losing not slippers along the way, but conscience, disgraced neither his diploma nor his colleagues, but took up arms to really protect in troubled times – really protect – his children and his country’s future…

It’s curious, will such "legal minds" remain professors or even just certified lawyers? The Yaroslav Mudryi National Law Academy of Ukraine won’t withdraw diplomas from its graduates who pretended to be deaf, blind, dumb, sick, multi-childed? And all the ranks will stay? And no one will be stripped of their awards?

The question is not only about one person…

Author: Serhiy Khomenko