Rada fires Prosecutor General Kravchenko: 317 votes after conflict with NABU and his departure abroad

The Verkhovna Rada backed the dismissal of Ruslan Kravchenko from the post of Prosecutor General of Ukraine. 317 MPs voted in favor of the dismissal, RBC-Ukraine reports, citing the live broadcast of the parliamentary session. The decision was the culmination of a multi-day public conflict between the Office of the Prosecutor General and the independent anti-corruption bodies — NABU and SAP — which escalated into a exchange of mutual accusations of document forgery, the "theft" of case materials, and a systematic attack on the anti-corruption system.

Voting in the Rada and the president's reaction

The parliament's decision was preceded by a direct address by President Volodymyr Zelensky to the MPs: the head of state asked them to immediately support the motion to dismiss Kravchenko, which he had sent to the Rada. On the evening of September 14, the president also suspended the Prosecutor General from his duties. Thus, by the time of the vote in the session hall, the issue had already been politically "closed" at the level of the head of state, and the 317 votes formalized the dismissal at the legislative level.

Chronology of the scandal: from "Carthage" to the departure abroad

The root of the conflict was the "Carthage" case — a special operation by NABU and SAP into the "protection" of fraudulent call centers, within which possible crimes involving officials of the Office of the Prosecutor General are being investigated. The anti-corruption bodies conducted searches at OGP premises; on September 6, the suspended head of the OGP's Department of International Cooperation, Serhiy Kropyva, known in the media as the "Chancellor," was taken into custody with a bail of 120 million hryvnias. Against this backdrop, on September 7 Kravchenko announced his resignation. On the morning of September 14, in a video address, he stated that he had signed a suspicion against NABU Director Semyon Kryvonos for "forging official documents to obtain undue benefit" and "fictitious adoption," as well as against a "person from the entourage" of SAP Head Oleksandr Klymenko. On the night of September 14, according to RBC-Ukraine sources, Kravchenko left Ukraine through a border crossing point with Poland, calling it a "foreign business trip to inform international partners about the risks to the anti-corruption system." Already abroad, he published materials regarding Kryvonos, concerning events of almost 20 years ago.

Position of NABU and SAP

NABU stated that no suspicion had been served on Kryvonos, and that Kravchenko's statements are of a "public, not procedural, nature"; the Bureau also denies that detectives seized materials from criminal proceedings. On the evening of September 14, the NABU Director and the SAP Head addressed journalists: Kryvonos called the information about search actions against him "falsified nonsense," while Klymenko stated that no one from his family had been served or informed of any suspicions, and interpreted Kravchenko's statement as a reaction to the "Carthage" case. Both bodies regarded the Prosecutor General's actions as a continuation of a systematic attack on independent anti-corruption structures.

Contradictory data

The parties' versions on key episodes diverge. Kravchenko insisted that he had signed a suspicion against Kryvonos and that during the searches in the "Carthage" case, materials of criminal proceedings against the heads and employees of NABU and SAP had been "stolen" from the OGP. However, the Office of the Prosecutor General in turn reported that Kravchenko's statements about the allegedly filed suspicion were "devoid of legal meaning," and the corresponding entries in the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations regarding the notifications of suspicion had been canceled. NABU, for its part, emphasizes that there was no procedural suspicion and that public statements are not identical to procedural actions. Thus, the fact of the "signing of a suspicion" and the "theft of materials" is confirmed only by Kravchenko's side and directly refuted by both NABU and the OGP itself.

Who is next

After Kravchenko's dismissal, the question of his successor remains open. Earlier, information about the possible appointment of Danylo Hetmanets to the post of Prosecutor General was circulating online, however RBC-Ukraine sources and the MP himself refuted this version. Thus, the personnel decision on the head of the OGP remains unresolved at the time of publication.