Kostin served as a member of
Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) from the
Servant of the People party from 2019 to 2022.
Competition for head of SAPO In 2021, a commission was established to interview candidates for the head of the Ukrainian
Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), a key position for resolving
corruption in Ukraine. Kostin was a candidate. In May 2021, the civil society organisations
Transparency International Ukraine,
Automaidan,
Anti-Corruption Action Center and
Dejure described Kostin as one of the candidates with "significant violations and a large discrepancy between these candidates and the integrity criteria" of the competition. The
Open Register of National Public Actors of Ukraine stated that Kostin's wife was an assistant consultant for fellow
Servant of the People parliamentarian and committee member
Maksym Dyrdin, whose own wife was an assistant consultant to Kostin. The civil society organisations described this as "possible nepotism".
Verkhovna Rada records stated that Kostin received ₴20,000 per month for rental compensation during 2019–2020 without declaring any residence in
Kyiv. In 2019, Kostin sold two flats in Odesa for a total of ₴1.2 million without reporting the sale to the
National Agency for Prevention of Corruption (NAPC). Kostin was among the 37 candidates who qualified for an interview, which was scheduled for 4 June 2021. Olena Shcherban, a lawyer of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, stated that Kostin should have been ineligible under the criteria for political neutrality, since he was a member of the
Servant of the People party and was the head of the Verkhovna Rada legal policy committee. In his "integrity interview", Kostin was questioned by the commission about his visit to
Crimea, occupied by Russian security forces. Following his integrity interview, Kostin did not qualify for further steps in the competition.
Legislative actions In July 2021, while legislation for creating the Ukrainian
Ethics Council was being debated, Kostin proposed an amendment to reduce the mandate of international members of the Council from six years, as proposed by the
Venice Commission, to three years. His amendment was rejected.
Minsk agreements In November 2021, as deputy chair of the Ukrainian delegation to the
Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine negotiating the
Minsk agreements that aimed to resolve the
War in Donbas, Kostin stated that the Russian delegation "didn't want to continue" negotiations on a draft law for local self-government in Donbas.
Prosecutor General On 27 July 2022, Kostin was voted by the
Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, as the new
Prosecutor General of Ukraine, in replacement of
Iryna Venediktova. == Scandals ==