The President of Ukraine suspended the Prosecutor General after his accusations against the head of NABU

President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky removed Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Kravchenko from office. On Monday morning, Kravchenko said that his department had raised suspicions against the head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Semyon Krivonos. After this, it became known that Kravchenko himself left Ukraine, explaining this as a business trip.

On Monday afternoon, Vladimir Zelensky signed a decree removing Ruslan Kravchenko from the post of Prosecutor General of Ukraine. The document was published on the official website of the president.

A few hours earlier, it became known that Ruslan Kravchenko, who announced his resignation on September 7, signed a notice of suspicion against the director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Semyon Krivonos.

Kravchenko published a video in which he said that Krivonos was accused of forgery of documents and fictitious adoption of a child. He called on Krivonos to resign.

“Based on the collected evidence, I signed a resolution to bring suspicion against the director of NABU, Semyon Krivonos. “I suspect him of falsifying official documents with the aim of obtaining unlawful benefits on an especially large scale, as well as fictitious adoption with the aim of artificially creating grounds for evading responsibility in court,” Kravchenko said.

Suspicion has not been officially brought against the director of NABU; the statements of the prosecutor general who resigned are of a public and not procedural nature, the anti-corruption bureau stated in response.

In the morning, after Kravchenko’s public statement of suspicion against Krivonos, Vladimir Zelensky wrote in a telegram: “This prosecutor general has only one option - removal from office. That's exactly what I told him. Ukraine saw all the reasons. If he considers it political pressure, let him call it that. I ask MPs to urgently support this removal.”

A BBC Ukrainian service source in Zelensky’s team commented on Kravchenko’s statement without diplomatic restraint: “He’s gone crazy, that’s obvious.”

The Verkhovna Rada must agree to the dismissal of the Prosecutor General by the President.

Today, the relevant committee of the Supreme Rada unanimously supported Kravchenko’s resignation. A vote by the full House is expected to take place tomorrow.

Operation Carthage and resignation letter

On September 7, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine submitted his resignation. “This is a political decision,” Kravchenko said then. “I don’t want the position of prosecutor general to be used as an instrument of political confrontation.”

The Prosecutor General made the decision against the backdrop of a corruption scandal, during which one of his subordinates, the head of the international cooperation department of the Prosecutor General’s office, Sergei Kropiva, was charged with corruption. Kropiva was arrested, and a search was carried out in the office of the Prosecutor General.

NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) announced the exposure of a criminal organization, which, according to the investigation, was headed by one of the heads of the Prosecutor General's office. According to investigators, participants in the scheme received bribes from fraudulent call centers and laundered illegally obtained funds.

NABU and SAPO called the investigation Operation Carthage. The recordings released by NABU feature a certain “Chief”, who, as Ukrainian journalists suggested, could be Kravchenko himself. He himself stated that he had nothing to do with call centers and had not committed any crimes.

The Prosecutor General left Ukraine

On Monday, after his statement about suspicions against the head of NABU, it became known that the prosecutor general had left Ukraine. He confirmed this on his Telegram channel.

“I am now on a foreign business trip, during which a number of meetings are planned, during which I intend to inform international partners about the real state of affairs in the system of anti-corruption bodies, signs of their concentration of uncontrolled influence and the risks that such practices create for state sovereignty, the rule of law and democratic institutions of Ukraine,” he wrote.

Sources of Ukrayinska Pravda reported that the Prosecutor General left the country at 2:30 a.m. in an official car. “Presumably, Kravchenko used a business trip to Lithuania as an excuse to cross the border,” the publication writes.

In his video message, the Prosecutor General said that he is confident in the materials of the case that he initiated against the head of NABU, and can make them public. He also reported suspicion to a person “close” to the head of the SAPO Alexandra Klimenko. Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Alexey Goncharenko believes that we are talking about Krivonos’ wife, notes the BBC Ukrainian Service.

“It was this criminal proceeding that became the trigger and the true reason for the night storming of the Prosecutor General’s office,” Kravchenko claims, referring to the investigative actions of NABU and SAPO in early September, which preceded his resignation letter. According to the Prosecutor General, anti-corruption authorities, as part of Operation Carthage, tried to gain access to these criminal cases.

The Prosecutor General also claims that he was previously restrained from investigating these cases by Zelensky: “Before these decisions were made, I was politically restrained by the president. The anti-corruption fighters themselves also held back, offering guarantees of immunity in exchange for refusing to raise suspicions.”

The Ukrainian service of the BBC asked the presidential office to comment on Kravchenko’s words that Zelensky “restrained” him.

Reaction of NABU and SAP

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office stated that they regard the actions of the Prosecutor General as “a continuation of a systemic attack on independent anti-corruption bodies.” “This attack did not start today. Its active phase started last summer, when one of the main goals was an attempt to subordinate NABU and SAP to the office of the Prosecutor General,” the statement said.

“At the moment, no suspicion has been officially brought against NABU Director Semyon Krivonos,” the message emphasizes. “Consequently, the statements of the prosecutor general, who recently resigned, are currently of a public rather than procedural nature.”