Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko left Ukraine overnight on September 14. According to media reports, he crossed the border at around 2:30 a.m. in an official vehicle, using a business trip to Lithuania as grounds for his departure.
Kravchenko said he planned to use the trip to brief international partners on the situation surrounding Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies. He did not specify whom he intended to meet.
Following Kravchenko’s departure, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the Verkhovna Rada to approve his dismissal 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. If he considers this political pressure, let him call it that. I ask lawmakers to approve his dismissal immediately,” Zelenskyy wrote.
Later on September 14, Zelenskyy signed a decree suspending Kravchenko from his post as prosecutor general. The decision was made under Article 11 of Ukraine’s Law on the Legal Regime of Martial Law.
Kravchenko had previously submitted his resignation, but parliament has yet to approve it. The vote is scheduled for September 15. The presidential decree suspends Kravchenko from office but does not replace the parliamentary procedure required for his formal dismissal.
His resignation followed an investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office as part of Operation Carthage. The agencies announced that they had uncovered an alleged criminal organization that facilitated the operation of illegal call centers and laundered the proceeds. Serhii Kropyva, the head of a department within the Prosecutor General’s Office, became one of the suspects in the case.
