Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko has confirmed that he is outside the country. He stated that he had left on an official foreign business trip, during which he intends to hold meetings with international partners and present them with his assessment of the situation in Ukraine’s anti-corruption system.
According to Kravchenko, he plans to tell foreign partners about the “real state of affairs” in NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP), as well as about what he considers signs of these structures concentrating uncontrolled influence. The prosecutor general stated that such a practice, in his opinion, creates risks for state sovereignty, the rule of law and Ukraine’s democratic institutions. He did not name the specific destination country, the dates of the meetings or the circle of interlocutors.
Kravchenko had previously announced submitting a resignation letter from the post of prosecutor general. The decision on his dismissal from office must be made by Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada; until the parliament votes, he formally continues to exercise his powers.
The resignation followed an anti-corruption investigation that affected employees of the Prosecutor General’s Office. NABU and SAP had announced the uncovering of an alleged scheme linked to patronage of fraudulent call centers and money laundering. At the same time, in the available official statements Kravchenko did not appear as a suspect; information about his personal involvement in such a scheme has not been confirmed in official releases by NABU and SAP.
After the investigation began, Kravchenko announced the suspension of a suspected employee of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the appointment of an inspection of the relevant unit. On September 14, Kravchenko also reported that he had signed a notice of suspicion against NABU director Semen Kryvonos in a case of forgery of official documents and receipt of unlawful benefit on an especially large scale. He also announced a second suspicion against a person he described as close to SAP head Oleksandr Klymenko.
NABU and SAP responded that Semen Kryvonos had not been officially served with a notice of suspicion. The anti-corruption bodies regarded the prosecutor general’s actions as pressure and a continuation of a systemic attack on their independence.
