Interpol Lawyer in Ukraine

Ukraine is an active Interpol member state and one of the more prolific issuers of Red Notices and Diffusion notices in the post-Soviet region. Since 2014, Ukrainian authorities have significantly expanded their use of Interpol mechanisms to pursue individuals abroad — including business figures, political opponents, and individuals with alleged ties to Russia or Russian-backed entities.

Ukrainian-issued Interpol notices present a particular challenge for individuals living in EU countries, the UAE, Turkey, and the United Kingdom — all of which respond to Interpol alerts through their national central bureaus. A valid Red Notice or Diffusion can trigger passport checks at border crossings, provisional arrest, and formal extradition proceedings even when the underlying charges are politically or commercially motivated.

Our lawyers work with clients who face Ukrainian criminal proceedings and Interpol notices — whether the case originates from business disputes, alleged corruption, property conflicts, or post-2014 political prosecutions. We operate on two tracks simultaneously: challenging the notice at Interpol’s CCF level and building a comprehensive defence against any extradition request in the country where our client resides.

Our Ukraine-focused Interpol defence practice covers the full spectrum of international law challenges:

Interpol’s rules explicitly prohibit the use of its systems for political, military, religious, or racial purposes. This provision — found in Article 3 of Interpol’s Constitution — is central to challenging Ukrainian-issued notices in a significant number of cases.

Since 2014, Ukrainian law enforcement and prosecutorial authorities have been used to target individuals associated with the previous government, business figures involved in disputed asset transfers, and professionals who cooperated with Russian-controlled entities in occupied territories. Many of these cases are driven not by genuine criminal justice purposes but by political objectives or business rivalry.

Interpol’s CCF has reviewed Ukrainian-issued notices and found violations of Article 3 in multiple documented cases. Our lawyers identify the political markers in your case — the timing of charges relative to political events, the identity and affiliation of complainants, the selective nature of prosecution, the absence of genuine criminal harm — and present these arguments in a structured CCF challenge designed to achieve notice deletion or suspension.

Key indicators of political motivation in Ukrainian cases that strengthen a CCF application include:

Ukraine is party to the 1957 European Convention on Extradition and has bilateral extradition treaties with a number of states. Extradition requests from Ukraine to EU member states are processed under the Convention framework, while requests to non-European countries depend on bilateral agreements or case-by-case arrangements.

Key considerations in extradition proceedings arising from Ukrainian charges:

• Dual criminality: The conduct alleged must constitute a criminal offence in both Ukraine and the requested state. Our lawyers scrutinise Ukrainian charges — often framed under broadly drafted corruption or economic crime statutes — to identify dual criminality failures.
• Political offence exception: Most extradition conventions contain a political offence exception. For Ukrainian cases with clear political dimensions, this is a powerful defence ground that we develop in parallel with the CCF challenge.
• Human rights bar: Courts in EU countries and the UK assess whether extradition to Ukraine would expose the individual to a real risk of torture, ill-treatment, or unfair trial. Given documented concerns about Ukrainian detention conditions and judicial independence, this argument carries significant weight.
• Refugee and asylum protection: Individuals who hold refugee status or have ongoing asylum proceedings in their country of residence may be fully protected from extradition to Ukraine.

In addition to formal extradition proceedings, Ukrainian authorities sometimes pursue individuals through Interpol Diffusion notices — which are less visible than Red Notices but can still trigger checks and provisional detention in cooperative states. Our lawyers challenge both pathways simultaneously.

Our Ukraine-related Interpol practice serves a diverse range of clients, united by the common challenge of facing Ukrainian criminal proceedings while residing or travelling abroad. Typical client profiles include:

Intercollegium is a specialist international law firm focused exclusively on Interpol, extradition, and sanctions defence. We have handled a substantial volume of cases involving Ukrainian-issued notices and have developed a deep understanding of the Ukrainian prosecutorial system, the political context of post-2014 proceedings, and the most effective arguments for the CCF.

For clients facing Ukrainian Interpol notices and extradition risk, we offer: