On the night of September 14, 2026, Ukraine's Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko left the country. According to a source told RBC-Ukraine, he crossed the border at around 02:30 through one of the checkpoints on the Polish direction. The departure came against the backdrop of a sharp escalation of the conflict between the Office of the Prosecutor General and the anti-corruption agencies, which over the past days has grown into an open political crisis.
Overnight departure via the Polish border
According to sources, Kravchenko left Ukrainian territory on the night of September 14 at approximately 02:30, using a checkpoint on the border with Poland. The specific name of the checkpoint was not specified in open reports, nor was the purpose of the trip. The fact of the border crossing, the publication's source said, was recorded on the side of the border control regime, making the departure from the country a documented event, albeit one based on an anonymous source.
Statement about a "foreign business trip" and video address
Kravchenko himself publicly stated that day that he "is on a foreign business trip," without revealing the details of the trip. In parallel, on September 14 he released a video address in which he announced that he had signed an indictment against NABU Director Semen Kryvonos and a person close to the head of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPP), Alexander Klymenko. In the address, the Prosecutor General also called on the heads of NABU and SAPP to resign, effectively declaring the start of a direct confrontation with the anti-corruption bloc.
NABU's reaction and the president's position
NABU stated that at the time of Kravchenko's statement, the indictment had not been officially served to Director Kryvonos. The anti-corruption bureau also refuted the Prosecutor General's claims about the seizure of criminal proceedings and any offers of "immunity." According to RBC-Ukraine sources in the president's entourage, Kravchenko's initiative to indict NABU's leadership was his own uncoordinated "self-activity." President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for his part, called on the Verkhovna Rada to dismiss Kravchenko from his post without delay, noting that the Prosecutor General has "only one path."
Contradictory data
The open statements by the parties and the reports from sources contain inconsistencies that must be honestly laid out. First, Kravchenko characterizes his trip as a "foreign business trip," whereas reports of a nighttime border crossing through a Polish checkpoint point to a departure from the country amid a political crisis; the two versions formally do not exclude each other, but they differ in the motives and nature of the trip. Second, the Prosecutor General claims to have signed an indictment against Kryvonos, while NABU states that the indictment was not served to the director and denies the seizure of proceedings. Third, in the president's entourage, Kravchenko's actions are called his personal uncoordinated initiative, which contradicts the portrayal of them as coordinated institutional decisions of the Office of the Prosecutor General. As of the time of publication, none of the versions had been conclusively confirmed by an independent document.
Context: Operation "Carthage" and the submitted resignation
The escalation is taking place against the backdrop of events in early September. On September 7, Kravchenko submitted his resignation following the special operation "Carthage" by NABU and SAPP, within the framework of which possible crimes involving officials of the Office of the Prosecutor General are being investigated. According to the investigation, the operation exposed a criminal organization involved in "protection" of fraudulent call centers, and searches were carried out in the OPG premises. It is precisely this context that defines the acuteness of the Prosecutor General's overnight departure and the subsequent public confrontation with the anti-corruption agencies.
