The untouchable Themis: judge Maryna Barsuk, her lawyer husband, and the luxurious life beyond the declared

The untouchable Themis: judge Maryna Barsuk, her lawyer husband, and the luxurious life beyond the declared

The Story of Judge Maryna Barsuk: Connections, Wealth, and Unanswered Questions.

Anti-corruption stories in Ukraine increasingly resemble a race in toxicity: daily new "revelations" – from well-known corruption cases to anti-corruption advocates whose rhetoric causes outright astonishment. But we do not stop.

This is reported by Vitaliy Kulyk, director of the Center for Civil Society Studies, who is quoted by "Comments".

This time – about Judge and Speaker of the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal (NCCA) Maryna Barsuk, who seems to have started a public campaign for a new career leap. The tenure of the current court head, Oleh Khrypun, a long-time colleague of Barsuk from the times of the Kyiv Commercial Court, is coming to an end. And it seems she is aiming for his position.

The court where she works has already been involved in scandals: suspicions by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), dismissal of judges for violations of ethics, moral norms, and standards. But Barsuk’s story is a separate chapter. Her name appears in investigations not only about court decisions but also about connections with politicians, lawyers, and business groups.

Formerly known as Maryna Didychenko, she was appointed as a judge during the influence of Andriy Portnov, and after the Revolution of Dignity, she became close to lawyer Serhiy Alyeksyeyev, who is associated with the law firm "Alyeksyeyev, Boyarchuk, and Partners" – a structure closely tied to Petro Poroshenko’s entourage.

Lawyers from this firm actively defended the interests of the fifth president’s large businesses, and Barsuk/Didychenko made decisions directly affecting the firm’s clients, including cases involving "Ukrsotsbank" and elite real estate. Scandals were not long in coming: from dubious court decisions to credit fraud where developers lost property and the benefit was received by banks and associated structures.

And then there is luxury. According to her declaration, Maryna Barsuk owns a significant amount of real estate – in 2023, she declared 12 properties: houses, plots, apartments, including in Britain. Also expensive cars, large sums of cash. Formally all within the judge’s salary, but most assets are registered to her husband – lawyer Viktor Barsuk.

His story is no less spicy: court cases, relationships with oligarch clients, participation in a book with Kolomoiskyi’s lawyer, conflict with an ex, scandalous events in personal life, living on the Côte d’Azur. Meanwhile, Barsuk until recently represented interests in courts, including the one where his wife works.

All this against the backdrop of Judge Barsuk’s presence at the anniversary of oligarch Pavlo Fuks, who is under sanctions and whose cases passed through the same court.

Questions that remain unanswered:

- Why does a judge with such a background not face any disciplinary consequences?

- Isn’t this a direct conflict of interest – when the judge’s husband is leading cases in her court?

- Why does the government tolerate connections with dubious figures from the past?

- And finally, is the public not interested in how a representative of the judiciary, who is supposedly only on a state salary, lives?