A village council official in the Odesa region was suspended from her position for extortion

The head of a department at the Nerubaysky Village Council is suspected of extorting a bribe in exchange for transferring communal land to private ownership. The court has suspended her from office until December 13, 2026.

The Center for Public Investigations has examined the details of the case.

According to investigators, in late September 2026, the official asked a businessman for $25,000 in exchange for facilitating the transfer of a 0.0988-hectare plot of land into private ownership. The land belonged to the Nerubayska community and had been leased by her husband since March 2025.

In late May 2026, the lessee decided to privatize the land plot. To do so, he approached the head of the Department of Economic Development, Investment, Infrastructure Development, Land Relations, Ecology, and Natural Resources of the Nerubayska Village Council, with whom he had previously interacted regarding land use. 

On June 10, 2026, the parties signed an agreement regarding an advance payment for the land, and on June 15, the man transferred 146,900 hryvnias to the village council for the appraisal of the plot and a partial payment toward its purchase. 

According to the investigation, the department head initially demanded a $25,000 bribe from the tenant in exchange for facilitating the conversion of the leased land plot into private ownership. She later increased the amount to $30,000 for drafting the village council’s resolution on the transfer of the land.

Law enforcement officers detained her while she was receiving the funds on October 16 and notified her that she was suspected of accepting a bribe and of extortion on an especially large scale.

In court, investigators pointed to the risk that the official could influence witnesses and the possibility of documents being destroyed or forged. The official and her attorney objected to her removal from office, but the court granted the law enforcement officers’ motion.

Анна Літман