A resident of Mykolaiv had to go to court to prove the obvious: the police are obliged to respond to reports of criminal offenses. While reports and statements were piling up at the Korabelnyi District police station, a real investigation had not even begun. The man who reported the crime in mid-November 2025 waited almost two months for the system’s response, which by law should have operated within 24 hours. Eventually, already in 2026 the Korabelnyi District Court found such behavior by the police to be unlawful inaction and obliged them to act.
12 and 18 November 2025 an active citizen filed reports with Police Station No. 3 (Korabelnyi Police Department) of the MRUP GUNP alleging the commission of a criminal offense. He had all the evidence in his possession.
It would seem the mechanism is clear: report — registration — investigation. But in Mykolaiv realities this chain broke at the first stage. As of January 2026 no information had been entered into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations (ЄРДР).
At the court hearing held on 8 January 2026, police representatives did not even appear, limiting themselves to providing the inspection materials. Examination of these documents showed that the complainant’s allegations of a crime were quite specific and required mandatory verification within the criminal process.
The investigating judge reminded law enforcement of the provisions of Article 214 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine:
- Information must be entered no later than 24 hours after the report is submitted.
- The investigator or inquirer must start the investigation immediately.
- Within 24 hours the complainant must be provided with an extract from the ЄРДР.
The police did not comply with any of these requirements, effectively shirking their duties.
As a result, the court found the violation of the Mykolaiv resident’s rights to be obvious. By its decision the judge fully granted the complaint and ordered the authorized person of Police Station No. 3 of the Mykolaiv RUP GUNP to enter the information from both reports into the ЄРДР.
Thus, law enforcement had to finally start the work they had tried to ignore for two months.
Previously we wrote:
- Four years to a sentence for beating a lawyer: how law enforcement officers are punished in Mykolaiv
- Court in Mykolaiv region did not see a crime in the “busification” of a man with a suspended sentence
- Why did the police stay silent for seven days? In Kyiv a detainee in handcuffs died
- “Is this mockery?”: police released the attacker who in Mykolaiv lunged at volunteers with a knife
