Corrupt officials will be able to buy their way out of punishment – the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine supported the bill

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has supported, in the first reading, bill No. 11340, which will allow suspects of receiving large bribes to buy their way out of punishment.

This was reported by MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak on his Telegram channel.

The bill proposes the following “alternative” ways of resolving criminal conflicts:

• From 204,000 UAH (4,500 euros) to 2.04 million UAH (45,000 euros) for a criminal misdemeanor.
• From 2.057 million to 20.4 million UAH for a non-serious crime.
• From 20.417 million to 102 million UAH for a serious crime.
• From 102 million UAH to 204 million UAH (4,498,773 euros) for an especially serious crime.

Zheleznyak mentioned that he voted against the coalition’s push to pass the bill in the first reading.

Later, MP Dmytro Hurin (Servant of the People) stated that he supported the bill by mistake.

“I just made a mistake, how embarrassing, for the first time, sorry,” the deputy wrote on X and promised to vote against it in the second reading.

It should be noted that recently MP Mykola Zadorozhny (Servant of the People) was charged with extorting a bribe of 3.4 million UAH (74,980 euros) for not hindering infrastructure repair work in the Sumy region, which led to his exclusion from the party. Zadorozhny denies the accusations made by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine regarding the bribe.