Iryna Venediktova

Biography

Iryna Venediktova is a Member of the Ukrainian Parliament of the 9th convocation, elected in 2019 from the “Servant of the People” party (No. 3 on the party list). In the Verkhovna Rada, she served as Chair of the parliamentary Committee on Legal Policy. At the beginning of 2020, she resigned her parliamentary seat after being appointed Acting Director of the State Bureau of Investigation. She later became Prosecutor General, although she did not demonstrate procedural independence in this role. Following the full-scale invasion, she was appointed Ambassador to Switzerland.

Timeline of Key Events

2024

Served as Ambassador: participated in organizing Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visits to Switzerland and the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland, which brought together representatives from over 100 states and international organizations. She also facilitated the inclusion of Ukraine in Switzerland’s Foreign Policy Strategy for 2024–2027 as a priority country.

2022

Dismissed from the position of Prosecutor General of Ukraine, yet she remained within the power structure and, a few months later, was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

The first reason for her resignation was that, despite her maximum loyalty to the wishes of Bankova Street, Iryna Venediktova constantly practiced self-removal from the urgent “political” needs to persecute Zelenskyy’s opponents, in particular, Petro Poroshenko. A second reason is that during active hostilities, she failed to ensure the procedural documentation of war crimes at a proper level. However, the main reason for the growing tension in relations with the Office of the President was that Venediktova was constantly increasing her “level of understanding” with representatives of other factions, particularly “European Solidarity,” “Batkivshchyna,” and the Opposition Platform — For Life (OPZZh).

2021

Reported to the Verkhovna Rada on the successful implementation of the prosecutorial reform and the re-attestation of 64% of prosecutors. At the same time, lawyers from the Anti-Corruption Action Centre believe that the re-attestation was conducted formally; only those who failed the exam were excluded, while prosecutors who faced questions regarding their assets, integrity, and ethical conduct successfully passed the interviews.

This year, following the initiative of civil activists, a criminal case was opened against Venediktova because she had an undeclared watch, the value of which could have been 10,000 euros. The Prosecutor General claimed it was a cheap counterfeit.

Lost a case in the Supreme Court concerning a defamation lawsuit filed against Ukrainska Pravda and the Anti-Corruption Action Centre. Ukrainska Pravda alleged that Venediktova’s husband, cyber-police officer Denys Kolesnyk, influenced the work of law enforcement agencies during her tenure as Director of the State Bureau of Investigation. The Supreme Court overturned the decisions of the lower courts, as the published information was an evaluative judgment rather than libel.

Announced a suspicion for “button-pushing” (proxy voting) against Vladyslav Polyak, a deputy from the “Dovira” faction.

2020

Iryna Venediktova was appointed Prosecutor General.

In the same year, for some time, the new Prosecutor General blocked the serving of a notice of suspicion to “Servant of the People” MP Oleksandr Yurchenko and announced it only a few days after a video involving his assistant and a bribe was released.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) opened a criminal proceeding against Venediktova for alleged interference in the case of Deputy Head of the Office of the President Oleh Tatarov. At that time, by Venediktova’s decision, the group of prosecutors in the Tatarov case—regarding his possible involvement in falsifying an expert assessment in the case of developer Maksym Mykytas—was suddenly changed. Venediktova facilitated the transfer of the case from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau to the Security Service of Ukraine. The case against Tatarov was closed in April 2022 on “procedural grounds.”

2019

In December, she resigned her parliamentary seat in connection with her appointment as Acting Director of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI). This body investigates crimes committed by law enforcement officers, judges, and government officials. The civil sector raised questions regarding the competition held to select the SBI Deputy Directors, given that a lawyer for Yanukovych obtained the position and was set to oversee cases involving Maidan protesters.

That same year, her husband, Denys Kolesnyk, became Deputy Head of the Cyber-police Department of the National Police of Ukraine. While living in Kyiv, the couple did not declare the real estate they were using.

Elected as a Member of the Ukrainian Parliament from the “Servant of the People” party (No. 3 on the list). In the Verkhovna Rada, she was elected Chair of the parliamentary Committee on Legal Policy.

Initiated amendments to Article 80 of the Constitution of Ukraine regarding the immunity of People’s Deputies of Ukraine (#1095). The law came into force on January 1, 2020.

As Chair of the Committee on Legal Policy, she supported the law on proxy voting (#2148), which, for the first time in the history of independent Ukraine, criminalizes proxy voting by deputies.

Supported the bill on the reform of the Prosecutor’s Office (#1032), which provided for the liquidation of the military prosecutor’s office and the re-attestation of prosecutors.

2018

Became an advisor to Volodymyr Zelenskyy on legal issues and joined Zelenskyy’s presidential campaign staff as an expert on judicial system reform.

2017

Unsuccessfully participated in the competition for the position of Supreme Court judge—she did not receive the required number of points.

2016

Appointed as an arbitrator of the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and as a member of the Scientific Advisory Council at the Supreme Court.

2013

Obtained a Doctor of Juridical Science degree.

2005-2019

Served as Head of the Department of Civil Law Disciplines at the V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.

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