Kravchenko’s departure and suspicion against Kryvonos: what is known so far?
Censor.NET has compiled all currently available information about the conflict between the Prosecutor General’s Office and NABU.
At 8:00 a.m. on September 14, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko published a video address explaining the reasons for submitting his resignation.
At the same time, he claimed that NABU and SAPO’s Operation Carthage was aimed at gaining access to criminal case files concerning the heads and employees of anti-corruption bodies.
The Prosecutor General also said that he had signed a notice of suspicion against NABU Director Semen Kryvonos and a person close to the head of SAPO. According to MP Honcharenko, the person in question is the wife of SAPO head Oleksandr Klymenko.
I have signed a notice of suspicion against NABU Director Semen Kryvonos. I suspect him of forging official documents to obtain an undue benefit on an especially large scale. And of a fictitious adoption intended to artificially create grounds for avoiding liability in court. The second notice of suspicion concerns a person close to the head of SAPO. It concerns influencing a High Anti-Corruption Court judge, offering them an undue benefit, and facilitating draft evasion. This proceeding was precisely the trigger and the true reason for the nighttime raid on the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The Prosecutor General advised NABU Director Kryvonos and SAPO head Klymenko to resign.
NABU’s response
NABU stated that no notice of suspicion had been served on Semen Kryvonos, and that the Bureau had not seized the criminal cases referred to by Ruslan Kravchenko.
The Bureau called the Prosecutor General’s statements a continuation of the attack on the independence of anti-corruption bodies.
This attack did not begin today. Its active phase began last summer, when one of the main objectives was an attempt to subordinate NABU and SAPO to the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Kryvonos also called the case fabricated.
What did Zelenskyy say?
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the Verkhovna Rada to immediately support Ruslan Kravchenko’s dismissal as Prosecutor General:
This Prosecutor General has only one path: dismissal from office. That is precisely what I told him. Ukraine has seen all the reasons. If he considers this political pressure, let him call it that.
Kravchenko’s departure
The Anti-Corruption Action Centre reported that Prosecutor General Kravchenko left Ukraine during the night.
Censor.NET sources reported that Kravchenko had registered his departure abroad as an official business trip to Brussels.
Kravchenko later confirmed that he had left the country. According to the Prosecutor General, he is abroad on a business trip.
A number of meetings are scheduled as part of the trip, during which I intend to inform international partners about the true state of affairs within the system of anti-corruption bodies, signs that they are concentrating uncontrolled influence, and the risks this practice creates for Ukraine’s state sovereignty, rule of law and democratic institutions.
According to media reports, Ruslan Kravchenko’s wife also left the country.
Suspicion against Kryvonos
Kravchenko later disclosed details of the proceedings in which Kryvonos was served with a notice of suspicion.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, in 2009 Kryvonos arranged fictitious paternity over another person’s child to avoid liability in a case involving the bribery of students and submitted a forged certificate to the court to obtain amnesty. In connection with this episode, he was notified of suspicion of document forgery and misleading the court.
MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak noted that the case against the NABU director had been prepared by the Security Service of Ukraine.
The Prosecutor General also published the full text of the notice of suspicion against the NABU director.
Kravchenko’s dismissal
On September 14, President Zelenskyy submitted a motion to the Verkhovna Rada to dismiss Ruslan Kravchenko as Prosecutor General.
The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Law Enforcement unanimously supported Kravchenko’s dismissal.
The vote on Kravchenko’s dismissal is expected to take place on September 15.
Other reactions
Head of the Presidential Office Kyrylo Budanov, commenting on the conflict between Kravchenko and Kryvonos, said that the entire situation was abnormal and damaging Ukraine’s image.
Meanwhile, Servant of the People MP and chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy Anastasiia Radina initiated an appeal to the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada seeking urgent consideration of a bill establishing a competitive procedure for selecting candidates for Prosecutor General.
The European Commission also recalled that the Kachka-Kos plan of 10 reforms states that the Prosecutor General should be selected through a competitive procedure.
"Independent anti-corruption bodies are a cornerstone of the rule of law in Ukraine. As a future member state, Ukraine must guarantee their protection, and they must be able to carry out their work properly," European Commission spokesperson Mercier said.
The European Commission also called for the independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies to be guaranteed.
