Judge from Mykolaiv region explains bottles of cognac in her office by fainting

The High Council of Justice has published the full text of the decision in the disciplinary case of judge Oksana Zvyagina of the Bashtanka District Court. According to the document, the judge was found in her office in a state of deep alcohol intoxication - she was lying unconscious on the floor.

The text of the decision was published on the website of the High Council of Justice.

The document reveals the details of the events that took place on October 2, 2025. On that day, court visitors witnessed the inappropriate behavior of the Themis servant, who, moving along the corridor towards the restroom, swayed violently and hit the walls several times. Later it turned out that around lunchtime, the judge fell asleep right at her desk, and later she was found unconscious on the floor of her office.

The situation was resolved by a court security guard who, after making sure that there was no direct threat to her life, carried the woman out of the room on his shoulders. CCTV cameras recorded him loading her into a car and taking her home. During the inspection of the office, empty bottles of alcohol and a half-empty bottle of cognac were found under the desk. The fact of purchasing alcohol was also confirmed by the footage from the cameras of a neighboring supermarket, which showed the judge buying cognac during her lunch break.

Oksana Zvyagina categorically denied drinking alcohol at the workplace. She explained her condition as an exacerbation of a chronic spinal disease , which allegedly led to clamping of the cervical arteries and sudden loss of consciousness due to lack of oxygen in the brain. The judge also referred to the use of sedatives due to constant stress and high workload. However, these arguments were contradicted by her own correspondence with the head of the court, where she apologized for the incident the next morning and admitted that she had not been able to cope with her emotions after a visit from her former elected official, who told her that he loved another woman.

Despite the fact that the head of the court subsequently tried to withdraw the complaint and gave his colleague a positive characterization, pointing to her critical psycho-emotional state due to the war and family problems, the HCJ's disciplinary chamber found such explanations insufficient. The members of the chamber concluded that the judge's behavior irrevocably undermined the authority of justice and trust in the judiciary, which was the basis for the decision to dismiss her.

Катерина Глушко