What decision will the Grand Chamber take regarding the application of “Lozovoy’s amendments”

“Lozovoy’s Amendments” is a complex of changes to the CPC of Ukraine, which were introduced in 2017, i.e. during the previous convocation of the Verkhovna Rada, on the submission of People’s Deputy Andrii Lozovoy. They related, including the limitation of pre-trial investigation periods, the increase of judicial control, in particular with regard to issues for which such control is not inherent.

Unfortunately, these changes had a negative impact on the effectiveness of pre-trial investigations. And despite the fact that most of it has already been canceled, the possibility of closing the case due to the expiry of the pre-trial investigation period is still available. And judicial practice regarding their application still differs.

On February 25, 2026, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court maybe put an end to this issue, because it is under consideration arrived criminal proceedings, which were closed due to the ambiguous application of the “Lozovoy amendments”.

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What is the key problem Although the limitation of the investigation period before the announcement of suspicion (part of the “Lozovoy amendments”) already canceledthe legislation retains a critical provision that allows criminal proceedings to be closed only due to a formal violation of procedural terms, even if it is a delay of several days. The situation is complicated by conflicting interpretations of the rules for extending these terms. Because of this, the court may close the proceedings even in cases where the time limit has not actually been missed. This actually creates legal uncertainty.

As it turned out, the biggest legal problem there is a question: who should have extended the terms of the pre-trial investigation in joint and separate criminal proceedings from March 16, 2018? After all, it was then that the “Lozovoy amendments” entered into force, which, including the authority to extend the period of investigation to 6 and 12 months, were transferred from the heads of prosecutor’s offices to investigative judges.

However, there were criminal proceedings that were initiated before that date. And during the pre-trial investigation, criminal proceedings initiated after March 16, 2018 could be combined with them. And if there is a consolidation of such criminal proceedings, it is considered that it is a single one and started exactly from the date on which the “old” criminal proceedings were started.

And supposedly in order to avoid misunderstandings when making these changes to the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the people’s deputies added an important note, which the practitioners were guided by: if the proceedings were opened before the date of entry into force of the “Lozovoy amendments”, then the authority to continue the investigation for up to 6 or 12 months remains with the prosecutor’s office, and the new rules for extending time limits – through the investigating judge – should be applied only to cases that were registered after that date. However, this only worsened the understanding of this norm.

Judicial dilemma The practice of judges of local and appellate courts in this matter differed: some closed the combined proceedings (due, as it were, to an illegal extension of time by the prosecutor), while others refused, arguing that the fact of registration of the “primary” proceedings is important, and not the subsequent consolidation and separation of cases from it.

Even the Supreme Court had different positions. Resonant decision The joint chamber of the CCS of the Supreme Court of October 31, 2022 finally deepened the problem. She determined that during all these 4 years, in joint or separate criminal proceedings, the investigative judge, and not the prosecutor, had to extend the investigation period to 6 and 12 months. Actually this decision was unpredictable for practitioners, because post factum created a rule that did not exist at the time of making procedural decisions in criminal proceedingsand thereby created a threat to the further fate of a large number of criminal proceedings.

For example, because of this decision, the first instance of VAX was closed “Rotterdam+” case about the abuse of 19 billion hryvnias or an episode the “gas case” of the Dubnevich brothers about the embezzlement of gas from Naftogaz of Ukraine for 1.4 billion UAH. Subsequently, they were canceled by the AP VAKS.

Almost 2 years later — on October 7, 2024 — the Joint Chamber of the Central Committee of the Supreme Council returned to this issue again and specified the previous position: the head of the prosecutor’s office could also extend the period of investigation in joint proceedings.

Therefore, there were two different approaches to who was supposed to extend the investigation period. At the same time, in our opinion, only one of them at least somehow solves the problems laid down by the legislator when constructing the norms of the law regarding the rules for extending the terms of the pre-trial investigation.

How to solve this problem On the one hand, it is the Great Chamber of the Supreme Court that is empowered to solve exceptional legal problems and ensure the development of law. Therefore, it depends on whether the formed legal position will become the intended application of the norm, or whether it will deepen the problems caused by the unrepealed part of the “Lozovoy amendments”.

On the other hand, since the source of the problem was not the best changes to the Communist Party of Ukraine of Ukraine, the parliament can eliminate the shortcomings of the work of deputies of the previous convocation, canceling the possibility of automatic closure of the case due to the expiration of the terms of the pre-trial investigation. At most, it already is registered draft laws We are talking about alternatives to the government’s and already withdrawn draft law No. 12367.

Finally, let us recall that the issue of pre-trial investigation terms has attracted the attention of even the European Commission, which in its recommendations from the report on enlargement for Ukraine indicatedthat the provision on the automatic closure of criminal cases due to the expiry of the pre-trial investigation period should be removed from the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, that is, the part of the “Lozovoy amendments” still in force should be finally repealed.

Pavel Demchuksenior legal advisor of TI Ukraine

The publication was prepared within the framework of the project “Digitization for Growth, Integrity and Transparency” (UK DIGIT), which is implemented by the Eurasia Foundation and financed by UK Dev. The material was created with the financial support of the International Development Assistance Program from the Government of Great Britain. The content is the sole responsibility of Transparency International Ukraine; the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the UK Government.

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