Ukraine is facing a new political scandal that has intensified the confrontation between the Prosecutor General’s Office and the country’s independent anti-corruption agencies.
At the center of the controversy is Ruslan Kravchenko, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, whose resignation must now be approved by parliament.
In early September, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) carried out a large-scale operation codenamed Carthage. Investigators said they had uncovered a criminal network whose members allegedly protected illegal call centers that defrauded people in Ukraine and other countries.
Officials from the Prosecutor General’s Office were among those implicated in the investigation. According to investigators, they may have accepted bribes in exchange for allowing the fraudulent call centers to continue operating and laundered the proceeds through real estate and other assets.
Kravchenko himself has not been formally named as a suspect. He categorically denied any involvement in the alleged scheme and said he had never instructed anyone to facilitate the operation of illegal call centers.
On September 7, Kravchenko unexpectedly submitted his resignation. He described it as a “conscious political decision” and stressed that it did not amount to an admission of guilt. According to him, the position of prosecutor general should not become an instrument of political confrontation.
The dispute, however, did not end there. While formally remaining prosecutor general pending a vote in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, Kravchenko signed a notice of suspicion against NABU Director Semen Kryvonos. Kryvonos is accused of forging documents and other possible violations related to the circumstances of his exemption from military service.
NABU and SAPO described Kravchenko’s actions as pressure on Ukraine’s independent anti-corruption institutions. Kravchenko, in turn, accused the agencies of attempting to gain access to criminal cases involving their own executives and employees.
During the night of September 14, Kravchenko left Ukraine in an official vehicle. Ukrainian media reported that he crossed the border at approximately 2:30 a.m., with the trip registered as an official visit to Lithuania. Other sources identified Brussels as his final destination.
Kravchenko confirmed that he was abroad. He said he planned to meet international partners and inform them about what he called the “real state of affairs” within Ukraine’s anti-corruption system. He did not disclose whom he intended to meet.
Shortly afterward, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly urged the Verkhovna Rada to dismiss Kravchenko without delay.
“This prosecutor general has only one path — dismissal from office. That is exactly what I told him. Ukraine has seen all the reasons,” the president said.
Zelenskyy submitted a formal motion to parliament seeking Kravchenko’s dismissal. The vote is scheduled for September 15.
Kravchenko therefore formally remains Ukraine’s prosecutor general until parliament makes its decision, even though he has already submitted his resignation and left the country.
The scandal is particularly significant for Ukraine because the independence of NABU and SAPO is one of the key demands made by the European Union and Kyiv’s international partners. Relations between these institutions and the Prosecutor General’s Office are seen as an important test of Ukraine’s commitment to continuing its anti-corruption reforms.
Later on the evening of September 14, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suspended Ruslan Kravchenko from his post as prosecutor general. The president signed the corresponding decree, No. 905/2026, the same day.
“Ruslan Andriiovych Kravchenko shall be suspended from the post of Prosecutor General,” the document states. The decision was made under Ukraine’s law on the legal regime of martial law.
