A year of work by the Podil Legal League: a precedent in the Supreme Court, training for police officers, and dozens of consultations every month

Publication date: December 12, 2025

Author: Yulia Bilyk, Communications Manager, Legal Development Network

A member organization of the Legal Development Network from Khmelnytskyi city, the Podil Legal League, has been providing free legal aid to the most vulnerable segments of the population for 15 years. During wartime, the organization has become a critical source of support for veterans, family members of those killed in action, and victims of domestic violence. Thanks to the support of GlobalGiving, the team was able to remain resilient during the difficult year of 2025 and continue to provide quality legal services in their city and surrounding communities.

A team of professionals with unique expertise

The Podil Legal League has been operating since 2010. Its supervisory function is performed by a board headed by lawyer Andriy Misyats. Anastasia Ploschynska is the executive director of the NGO. As a lawyer and attorney, Anastasia provides legal support in strategic cases, particularly those related to gender-based and domestic violence, the protection of children’s rights, and compensation for property damaged as a result of the war.

Lawyer and attorney Pavlo Slobodyanyuk is responsible for receiving citizens at the organization’s office and specializes in protecting the rights of internally displaced persons, war veterans, and family members of the deceased. Attorney Anton Zabolotny accompanies strategic cases in court. The organization also employs online chat lawyers Volodymyr Shynkar and Ruslan Malyi, financial manager Iryna Kravchuk, and media expert and lawyer Ruslana Slobodyanyuk, who is involved in interviews, speeches, live broadcasts, and public events.

At the beginning of the full-scale war, the Podil Legal League, like many others, took up humanitarian work. However, over time, it has returned to its natural environment — the field of human rights protection.

“All members of our organization are professional lawyers. We seriously considered areas that we could further develop. We realized that legal aid is what we are most useful at,” emphasizes Anastasia Ploschynska, executive director of the Podil Legal League.

The lawyers of the Podil Legal League take on complex cases that require lengthy court proceedings on a pro bono basis. This allows the organization not only to provide initial consultations, but also to fully represent clients in court.

Geography of legal aid

Although the organization operates mainly in Khmelnytskyi (about 80% of its work), the team tries to cover other areas of the region as well.

“We try to work throughout the region. When we had the resources, we even worked partly in the neighboring Vinnytsia region. Now that we have the organizational and financial capacity, we travel to villages because we understand that the situation there is much more difficult than in the regional center,” says Anastasia Ploschynska.

Citizens are seen every Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. by appointment. However, the organization tries to be as accessible as possible, so the lawyer also sees clients on a first-come, first-served basis. If the issue concerns the specialization of a specific lawyer, Anastasia Ploschynska arranges a convenient time for the client and the lawyer.

According to the organization’s executive director, in most cases, lawyers go beyond the usual initial consultation and help clients properly prepare the necessary documents.

“When a person has gone through the process of making an appointment for a consultation, waiting for a response, and hoping for substantive assistance, and we simply tell them to prepare the documents, it sounds like mockery. That is why we do everything we can to facilitate the resolution of the issues that are brought to us,” explains Anastasia Ploschynska.

The main topic is war and its consequences

Recently, the topics of appeals to the NGO have changed. The problems of military personnel and complaints about the actions of territorial recruitment centers (TRCs) have come to the fore.

“We receive many appeals from military personnel related to unauthorized absence from military units, refusal to transfer them to their place of service, failure to consider reports, and lack of documents confirming their involvement in combat missions. There are also many cases concerning the actions of TCCs. People who have been granted deferrals from mobilization and who have been illegally deprived of their liberty seek legal assistance, and we even open criminal proceedings. These are very complex cases,” notes Anastasia Ploschynska.

In second place in terms of number are appeals from family members of deceased, missing, and captured military personnel.

“In cases where citizens are in captivity or missing, it is almost impossible to influence the situation legally. Therefore, we refer clients to partner coalitions that can appeal to members of parliament for assistance at the highest level of the state,” says Anastasia Ploschynska.

There has also been an increase in requests for assistance with registration in the International Register of Damages. Whereas previously people were wary and lawyers had to convince them of their right to compensation for destroyed/damaged property, now the opposite is true. Two clients of the Podil Legal League are ready to appeal to the UN Human Rights Committee.

The invisible epidemic of domestic violence

Another alarming trend is the increase in the number of reports of domestic violence. According to Anastasia Plozhynska, the police are not yet responding effectively to such cases, and lawyers need to become more actively involved in these cases. The problem is that police officers do not always understand the nuances of legislation on child protection, family law, and domestic violence.

“For example, the police are called, a person says that they are suffering from violence, and law enforcement officers treat it as a domestic quarrel, a civil law relationship. Meanwhile, the person remains in danger. In the case of children, the situation is similar. A child calls the police, the police see that both parents are intoxicated, and they leave the child with these parents, saying, ‘We don’t have the authority to do anything,’” Anastasia Ploschynska says indignantly.

That is why the executive director of the Podil Legal League conducted a series of training sessions for the Patrol Police Department—five lectures for about 100 employees.

“I criticized their activities, and they responded to this criticism by inviting me to come and teach them how to work properly. There were four lectures for four companies and one lecture for the heads of the patrol police departments,” says Anastasia Ploschynska.

The police officers learned comprehensive information about children’s rights, guardianship and custody, legal representatives, who can be a representative, what police custody is, as well as family law: what a child’s place of residence is and why the police do not have the right to decide with whom the child will live — with the father or mother — and where to go to resolve such issues.

Success is when truth prevails

Among the complex cases that the lawyers of the Podil Legal League have been working on for months, there are a number of success stories that have brought the desired results for clients and received public attention. One such case began with an appeal from the mother of a deceased soldier. The problem was that the family was denied payments from the state on the grounds that the place of death was the Kursk region of the Russian Federation. According to current legislation, this territory does not belong to the combat zone.

“Our lawyer, Pavlo Slobodyanyuk, after going through three court instances pro bono with the client, proved in the Supreme Court that the man died as a result of the war and, therefore, his relatives were entitled to compensation from the state. This case gained publicity and was widely reported because it is truly a legal precedent of our time,” emphasizes Anastasia Ploschynska.

Another example is related to domestic violence. Anastasia Plochyna accompanied her client for five months — from May, when the woman first contacted the NGO, to October, when her interests were successfully defended in court.

The client suffered from three types of violence: physical, economic, and psychological. Through the court, it was possible to dissolve the marriage, obtain alimony, bring the abuser to administrative responsibility, and even obtain a court decision to register the children in a new apartment without the father’s consent.

GlobalGiving as a lifeline in critical times

When USAID suspended funding for programs in 2025, many human rights organizations were threatened with closure. The Podil Legal League was able to survive this difficult period thanks to flexible funding from GlobalGiving.

“GlobalGiving helped us hold on this year and keep our organization open. Although this year we may not have been as active as last year, when we were able to pay for fuel and travel to communities on a regular basis, we were able to maintain our viability and continue to provide quality legal services,” emphasizes Anastasia Ploschynska.

It is also important that GlobalGiving provides the opportunity to conduct legal awareness events for students, internally displaced persons, and those categories of citizens who are unable to pay for the services of private practice lawyers.

Legal education for various target groups

On average, the NGO provides 75 to 85 consultations to individual clients per month. In addition, it conducts several informational and educational events. Its regular audience consists of students, and not only those studying law.

“We gave lectures to college students majoring in economics, telling them how to write appeals to government agencies so that they would be heard. These are skills that every citizen needs to have, because, as practice shows, not everyone knows how to do this,” says Anastasia Ploschynska.

The organization recently held a training session for law students on international mechanisms for protecting the rights of victims of war crimes.

“We looked at how the UN Committee works and how it differs from the European Court of Human Rights. This event is useful for students. This topic is not covered in their curriculum at all, even though we are all living with it today,” notes the executive director.

Anastasia Ploschynska often gives interviews and comments on current topics for local television. The channel broadcasts in Khmelnytskyi and the neighboring Ternopil region. Recently, the lawyer spoke about protecting the rights of the families of deceased volunteers, appealing the actions of the TCC, and legislative updates regarding deferrals from mobilization.

Plans for the future: development and scaling

The organization’s immediate plans include developing its communications strategy: updating its PR strategy and improving its fundraising skills. This is necessary so that the team can provide more secondary legal aid and return to regular outreach consultations.

“We used to conduct outreach consultations on a regular basis: every other Thursday we had a reception for citizens in one district, every other Tuesday in another. We worked like this for so long that people already knew and waited for our arrival. Both I and our entire team would very much like to return to this system. Therefore, it is important for us to find new ways to attract resources,” says Anastasia Ploschynska.

The team believes that the demand for free legal aid in the region’s communities remains high, while state legal aid offices are limited by their working conditions. As a public organization, the Podil Legal League has no restrictions other than financial ones.

“Current and former military personnel and their families have many legal problems: many documents are not issued voluntarily, and in order to obtain them, it is necessary to make lawyer’s requests. But even lawyer’s requests do not always receive answers, because the information in question is classified as a military secret. We are able and willing to take on complex cases. So we are looking for resources to work with them more and thereby influence law enforcement practices,” concludes Anastasia Ploschynska.

This material was created by the Legal Development Network with the support of the international charitable platform GlobalGiving. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the Legal Development Network.

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