SBU forced to open a case against the head of Odesa military administration Kiper

In Odesa, a court ordered the SBU to open a criminal investigation into allegations of abuse by the head of the Odesa Regional State Administration, Oleh Kiper. The statement reported the possible formation of an organized criminal group.

This is evidenced by the ruling of the Peresypskyi District Court of Odesa.

The court ordered the SBU Office in Odesa region to enter information into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations on the statement of alleged serious crimes involving the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration.

The judge considered the applicant's complaint against the action of the SBU investigator, who, according to the applicant, failed to register a criminal offense in the URPI, despite the direct requirement of the Criminal Procedure Code.

As follows from the case file, on December 11, 2025, the applicant filed a written statement with the SBU in Odesa region about possible criminal actions of the former prosecutor of the Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office, Oleh Kiper, who is now the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration. The statement referred to the alleged creation of an organized criminal group with the participation of affiliated legal entities and individuals, heads of structural units of the Odesa City Council and government officials.

According to the applicant, this group could have been involved in setting up a criminal scheme aimed at removing property owned by Russian oligarchs and their associates from the special sanctions regime. In addition, the statement referred to the possible misappropriation and embezzlement of Odesa city budget funds, in particular by overstating the cost of public procurement, manipulating the terms of tenders, and engaging controlled companies and individual entrepreneurs to obtain illegal benefits.

The applicant also argued that independent business entities could have been deliberately created non-competitive conditions in order to block access to budget funding.

However, as the court found, despite the requirements of part one of Article 214 of the CPC of Ukraine, the investigator failed to enter the relevant information into the URPTI within the statutory period - no later than 24 hours from the date of filing the application. Although the representatives of the investigative unit and the prosecutor's office were notified of the date and time of the court hearing by electronic means, they did not appear in court and did not explain the reasons for their absence. The applicant himself requested that the complaint be considered without his participation.

In his ruling, the judge emphasized that the current CPC does not provide for a preliminary assessment of a crime report for the presence of a criminal offense before entering information into the URPTI. Refusal to accept and register such a statement is expressly prohibited by law. Since no evidence of entering the information into the register was provided to the court, the court concluded that the investigator had failed to act.

As a result, the court upheld the complaint and ordered the Head of the Investigation Department of the SBU Office in Odesa Region to enter the relevant information into the URPTI and initiate a pre-trial investigation into the application dated December 11, 2025. In addition, the head of the pre-trial investigation body was obliged to notify the Peresypskyi District Court of Odesa of the execution of the ruling.

The ruling came into force upon its promulgation and is not subject to appeal.

In 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine appointed Oleh Kiper as the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration. Prior to that, according to media reports, he worked as a freelance adviser to the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak.

In 2024, Hromadske.ua journalists published an investigation in which they stated that after the start of the full-scale invasion, Kiper effectively concentrated control over grain exports from Ukraine. According to the authors, as the head of the Odesa Regional Customs Office, he introduced separate customs rules for the region and its ports, while about 85% of the country's agricultural exports passed through the Odesa region.

Анна Літман