Brigadier General, Dmytro Serhiyovych Usov, Secretary of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, has joined the judging panel of the All-Ukrainian Legal Competition for Student Law-Making Initiatives “New Ukraine Through the Eyes of Young Lawyers.” This was announced by the competition organizers.

Dmytro Usov is a career officer and brigadier general who, throughout the full-scale war, has been directly responsible for organizing and carrying out prisoner-of-war exchanges. Thanks to his efforts, thousands of Ukrainian defenders and civilians have been returned home. Previously, he served as deputy chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, where, together with intelligence leadership, he established negotiation mechanisms and humanitarian channels for the release of prisoners of war.

The inclusion of Brigadier General Usov on the competition commission is not only a recognition of his expertise but also an important step toward integrating practitioners from public administration and the security sector into legal education. For contest participants, this creates a unique opportunity to receive feedback from a specialist who is directly involved in implementing the state’s strategic objectives in a wartime environment.

As a reminder, the competition was established by the Vadym Hetman Kyiv National Economic University with the support of the National Bar Association of Ukraine and aims to engage young lawyers in shaping a vision for international legal security guarantees for Ukraine after the war ends.

As part of the competition, participants prepare legal papers aimed at developing practical law-making initiatives, particularly in the areas of public administration, security, digitalization, human rights protection, and the functioning of the rule of law. The competition is nationwide in scope, and its results are intended to serve as an intellectual contribution by the younger generation of lawyers to shaping Ukraine’s future legal order.

The organizers are convinced that the competition will serve as a platform for shaping Ukraine’s new legal elite—specialists capable of thinking strategically, working with international law, recognizing security challenges, and building a rule-of-law state within the European framework.

Contest Rules:

The All-Ukrainian Student Law Competition “New Ukraine Through the Eyes of Young Lawyers” involves the preparation of a legal student paper proposing a draft international security treaty for Ukraine.

The competition’s prize fund totals 500,000 UAH, which will be distributed among the winners as follows:

• 200,000 UAH — 1st place;
• 150,000 UAH — 2nd place;
• 100,000 UAH — 3rd place;
• 50,000 UAH — Special Prize from the Contest Founder.

A video presentation of the competition is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjSn66JzZFQ

Updated Composition of the Competition Committee

The contest organizers remind participants that the updated composition of the judging panel for the All-Ukrainian Student Contest of Law-Making Initiatives “New Ukraine Through the Eyes of Young Lawyers” includes:

•  Eva Hofmanska — Chair of the competition committee, international expert on human rights and mechanisms for protecting war victims, founder of initiatives to document war crimes and establish effective mechanisms to assist victims;
•  Dmytro Luk’yanenko — Deputy Chair (Secretary) of the competition committee, Doctor of Economics, professor, and rector of the Vadym Hetman Kyiv National Economic University;
•  Lyudmyla Kozhura — Doctor of Law, professor, director of the Law Institute at Vadym Hetman Kyiv National Economic University;
•  Svitlana Zaderayko — Candidate of Legal Sciences, Professor in the Department of Public and International Law, Deputy Director of the Law Institute at Vadym Hetman Kyiv National Economic University;
•  Vadym Krasnik — Head of the Secretariat of the National Bar Association of Ukraine;
•  Ihor Andreev — Chair of the Youth Committee of the National Bar Association of Ukraine;
•  Yuriy Radzievsky — Chair of the Information Committee of the National Bar Association of Ukraine;
•  Oleksiy Shevchuk — Head of the Center for Legal Information, Professional Development, and Expert Research at the Educational and Scientific Institute “Law Institute of the Vadym Hetman Kyiv National Economic University,” spokesperson for the National Bar Association of Ukraine;
•  Valentin Nalyvaichenko — Member of the Ukrainian Parliament, former Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, statesman and public figure;
•  Ihor Ostash — Head of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine;
•  Natalia Kazaeva — Chair of the Kyiv Branch of the Notarial Chamber of Ukraine, Chair of the NPU Commission on Informatization, Digital Transformation, and Cybercrime Prevention, private notary;
•  Dmytro Usov — Brigadier General, Secretary of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.