The regional registration department has declined to revoke Governor Oleksiy Kharchenko’s controversial Order № 452. While acknowledging official records of the restricted "Registry № 2," authorities ruled that reviewing beneficiary allocations falls outside administrative oversight and belongs to criminal investigators.
The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine has officially confirmed receipt and review of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration's (OVA) formal letter № 1410/02.01-16 dated September 22, 2026, which details the write-off of over 401.7 million UAH in subsidized mortgage obligations favoring selected public officials through the non-public "Registry № 2". However, the state registration authority formally declined to examine the individualized distribution of these public funds, stating that beneficiary oversight lies outside its regulatory mandate.
This determination is outlined in official response № 22798/25418/23/26/7 issued on October 6, 2026, by the Kharkiv Interregional Directorate of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, signed by Directorate Head Maksym Bondarenko.
The response addresses a formal administrative petition submitted by Serhiy Stulov, representing the French non-profit organization Association « DE L'AUTRE CÔTÉ DU DIALOGUE ». The petition sought the administrative revocation of the regulatory registration for Luhansk Regional Governor Oleksiy Kharchenko’s Order № 452 (enacted September 16, 2026, and registered under № 24/24 on September 21, 2026). Order № 452 altered regional mortgage lending procedures for internally displaced persons (IDPs), structurally barring citizens displaced following the 2022 invasion and reserving eligibility exclusively to pre-2014 displaced persons registered within four specific occupied districts.
Formal Acknowledgment and Jurisdictional Waiver
In its written findings, the Ministry of Justice acknowledged reviewing the factual evidence regarding the diversion of public funds and privileged recipient categories:
«During review, the Directorate took into account the materials cited in the appeal, including information from the Luhansk Regional State Administration dated September 22, 2026, № 1410/02.01-16. However, these circumstances concern the practical implementation of the budget program and the application of its provisions to specific individuals, and do not in themselves demonstrate non-compliance of Order № 452 with current legislation... Matters regarding the implementation of this budget program, the compilation of candidate registries, and decisions regarding individual participants fall outside the scope of regulatory review procedures...».
Through this statement, the state registrar officially validated the existence of administrative records governing closed registries under Lyudmyla Didenko’s directorate, while restricting its own mandate to textual review and leaving enforcement of systemic irregularities to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP), and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
Procedural Grounds for Rejection
The Interregional Directorate rested its refusal to revoke Order № 452 upon two formal procedural barriers:
- Absence of a Prior Judicial Ruling:
The agency cited Subparagraph "b" of Paragraph 17 of Cabinet of Ministers Regulation № 731, which stipulates that an administrative registration is annulled upon entry into force of a court ruling declaring the normative act unlawful. In the absence of an executed court decree, the Directorate declined to revoke its prior registration on its own initiative.
- Rejection of Territorial Discrimination Claims:
The Directorate concluded that it identified no statutory non-compliance with anti-discrimination legislation. The ruling did not address the operational contradiction wherein IDPs displaced in 2022 from Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk, Popasna, and Rubizhne are disqualified from support, despite the regional housing credit allocations being directly backed by 401.7 million UAH reallocated from the Lysychansk municipal budget.
Administrative Exhaustion and Legal Next Steps
The Ministry of Justice's formal determination of October 6, 2026, exhausts all administrative avenues for pre-trial review, initiating the transition to direct judicial and investigative remedies:
- Administrative Court Challenge:
With the pre-trial remedy completed, the Association « DE L'AUTRE CÔTÉ DU DIALOGUE » has established the necessary standing to file a lawsuit before the Administrative District Court seeking to invalidate Order № 452 on non-discrimination grounds, naming both the Luhansk OVA and the registering Directorate of Justice as co-defendants.
- Evidentiary Submission to NABU:
The regulatory authority’s written acknowledgment that the matters documented in Letter № 1410/02.01-16 concern individual material allocations provides structural evidence for criminal filings alleging abuse of authority (Article 364) and misappropriation of funds (Article 191) under the exclusive jurisdiction of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine.
While the regional administration extended its application intake to October 9, 2026, to demonstrate procedural compliance, official state correspondence confirms that substantial financial commitments were allocated through closed procedures without substantive review by administrative oversight bodies.
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