A 34-year-old deputy head of a postal office in Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region has become the subject of a criminal investigation: she is suspected of embezzling pension payments from 23 people totaling over 185,000 hryvnias. This case is not simply about one person with selfish motives. It illustrates a systemic vulnerability that still exists in the cash-based model of pension payments through the postal service.
How it works: a scheme in three steps
According to the Kyiv region police, in April 2024, the suspect "groundlessly wrote off unpaid pensions as expenses" and entered the corresponding entries in accounting documents. In simple terms: money that pensioners did not withdraw or receive was marked as distributed — and ended up in the pocket of the official.
"The offender appropriated money totaling over 185,000 hryvnias by abusing her official position for personal gain."
Kyiv Region Police
The mechanism is possible where the same employee both manages cash, keeps accounting records, and authorizes disbursements. This is a classic absence of the "four eyes principle" — a basic financial control rule where authorization and execution of transactions should be carried out by different people.
Scale: millions of payments, paper-based controls
Ukrposhta annually delivers more than 120 million pensions and social security payments across Ukraine. The service is used by over 2 million pensioners — primarily those living far from ATMs or without bank accounts. Cash payment through a mail carrier or at an office remains the only option for a significant portion of recipients.
Ukrposhta acknowledges that cash pensions are a service that is "dying out": the share of such payments is declining due to the gradual transition to bank cards. But while millions of people remain in the paper-based system, the vulnerability does not disappear.
What comes next for the suspect
Under the article on embezzlement committed by an official using their position, the woman faces up to 8 years in prison. The pre-trial investigation is ongoing.
The question that remains open is whether law enforcement will check other offices with a similar accounting model — or will the Bila Tserkva case remain an isolated incident rather than a reason for a systemic audit?
