The Head of the Shipping Administration was suspended at his own request after accusations by People’s Deputy Skorokhod: details

The Cabinet of Ministers has suspended Serhiy Gursky from performing his duties as head of the Shipping Administration for the duration of disciplinary proceedings.

This was reported by the Ministry of Infrastructure.  

Statement by the Ministry of Infrastructure

On September 8, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted a decision to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the Head of the State Service of Maritime and Inland Water Transport and Shipping of Ukraine, Serhiy Gurskyi.

For the duration of the disciplinary proceedings, Serhiy Gursky was suspended from his duties. Serhiy Maksymov was assigned to perform the duties of the Head of the Shipping Administration.

“The basis for the response was information about possible violations in the work of the Head of the Shipping Administration, Serhiy Gursky, in particular in the areas of shipping organization and seafarer certification. The published facts and statements require proper verification and legal assessment,” the department commented.

The relevant disciplinary proceedings will be conducted by the Commission on the Higher Civil Service Corps. The Commission must inform the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine about its results by October 23, 2026.

The Ministry of Infrastructure noted that further personnel decisions will be made based on the results of disciplinary proceedings.

Gursky’s position

Serhiy Gurskyi stated in a video message that recently MP Anna Skorokhod has been spreading information about him, which, according to the official, is not true and harms his professional reputation and personal life.

“I categorically reject these accusations. In order to ensure a full and unprejudiced verification of all the published statements, I have filed an application to suspend me from the duties of the head of the Shipping Administration for the duration of the verification,” he commented.

Gurskyi rejected the accusations and stated that he himself had requested his suspension for the duration of the verification.

“I also personally appealed to the competent authorities with a demand to verify this information and my activities in office. This is my conscious decision. I have nothing to hide and I am interested in ensuring that all questions receive clear answers, and society receives objective results of the verification,” he said, adding that he would publicly announce the results of the verification.

Head of the Shipping Administration, Serhiy Gurskyi, suspended for the duration of disciplinary proceedings.

Context

The government’s decision was preceded by the fact that People’s Deputy Anna Skorokhod publicly made a number of accusations against Serhiy Gurskyi and the work of the Shipping Administration.

In particular, she stated about possible unofficial payments related to the order of ships on the Danube, problems in the field of seafarers’ certification and the increase in the cost of issuing certificates. The deputy also questioned Gurskyi’s separate business trips to Poland. Skorokhod stated that she allegedly had evidence of possible abuses and intended to raise this issue with the government.

Among other things, she claims that under Gurskyi’s leadership, the “shadow fee” for a place in the queue for a ship to enter the Danube increased to $30-50 thousand, and the cost of certificates for seafarers increased by 3-5 thousand.

The statements made by the deputy at the time of publication have not been confirmed by the results of an official investigation.

The topic of seafarers’ certification was publicly sensitive even before that. In July, the Shipping Administration separately denied information about alleged changes in the certification procedure, and at the end of July, Gurskyi met with the MTWTUU regarding the simplification of seafarers’ documents.

Reference

As a reminder, Serhiy Gurskyi headed the Shipping Administration quite recently – at the end of May 2026. The department officially announced his appointment on May 28. Before that, he had about 20 years of experience in the maritime and shipbuilding industries, in particular, he worked at the Kherson Shipbuilding Plant. Later, he headed the OCEAN Shipbuilding Plant, and for the last three years he has been managing the Shipping Register of Ukraine.

Anna Skorokhod is a People’s Deputy of Ukraine of the 9th convocation. In December 2019, she was expelled from the Servant of the People faction, and since July 2020 she has been a member of the deputy group “Party “For the Future”.

Currently, Skorokhod is a member of the parliamentary Committee on Energy and Housing and Communal Services, as well as the permanent delegation of the Verkhovna Rada to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the Ukrainian part of the Ukraine-EU Association Parliamentary Committee.

In December 2025, Skorokhod was reported as a suspicion in a case being investigated by the NABU and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. According to the investigation, a group of individuals allegedly offered a business representative $250,000 to organize the application of NSDC sanctions against a competing company.

In June 2026, the NABU and Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office reported the completion of the pre-trial investigation and the opening of materials to the defense. Skorokhod previously denied the charges and claimed that the case was falsified.

The anti-corruption authorities did not name the deputy in their releases, but her identity is confirmed by the materials of the Supreme Court court proceedings and reports from court hearings.

People’s Deputy Anna Skorokhod.

Earlier, USM reported that the Shipping Administration changed the cost of the form of one of the sailor’s documents.