Today, the HACC held hearings in two separate corruption cases involving former head of the State Fiscal Service Roman Nasirov — the case concerning his alleged role in Onyshchenko’s “gas scheme” and the case of a multimillion bribe he allegedly received from agribusiness tycoon Oleh Bakhmatiuk. 

However, a strange situation has emerged with defense attorney Kostiantyn Doroshenko. Nasirov continues to use his services in one case, even though in the other — where the statute of limitations is about to expire — he abruptly dismissed him, allegedly due to “differences.” This clearly looks like yet another attempt to stall the proceedings in order to avoid liability. 

At one of the previous hearings in the Onyshchenko “gas scheme” case, Nasirov suddenly terminated his agreement with Doroshenko. He only explained it by saying that “differences had arisen between them,” without specifying further. As a result, two hearings were postponed due to the appointment of a new lawyer. Yet, as it turned out today, Doroshenko continues to defend Nasirov in the bribery case — where, apparently, there are no such “differences.”

The delay caused by the sudden termination of the agreement with Doroshenko has raised further concerns that the case will not be heard before the statute of limitations expires in April 2026. Even before that, the case had been progressing poorly. For example, since June, Nasirov has been continuing his closing arguments, ignoring the judge’s remarks and repeating himself multiple times. Earlier, when Doroshenko was still his lawyer in this case, he unexpectedly asked to postpone as many as five previously scheduled hearings, citing personal reasons such as vacation and business trips. Around the same time, Nasirov dismissed another defense attorney, Yuliia Shvets, which also led to delays.

This all leads to the conclusion that the abrupt termination of Doroshenko’s services in a case already at risk of expiration was aimed at dragging out the proceedings even further to avoid responsibility. Moreover, even today, Nasirov’s new attorney Andrii Kostenok, along with Nasirov himself, filed motions to recuse the judges and to adjourn the hearing. The court treated these motions as abusive and rejected them. Eventually, Nasirov resumed his closing arguments.