Ukraine's Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko has officially resigned, becoming a central figure in a new large-scale corruption scandal in the country. His decision was announced on his personal Telegram profile after a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Reasons: Operation “Cartagena“ and fraudulent schemes
Kravchenko's resignation is a direct consequence of the large-scale anti-corruption operation “Cartagena“. According to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), a criminal organization operated within the Prosecutor General's Office. It provided an umbrella and accepted systematic bribes from illegal call centers that carried out telephone fraud and money laundering worth millions.
Over the past weekend, searches were carried out in the office and properties of Kravchenko, as well as his first deputy, Maria Vdovichenko. On September 6, the court imposed permanent arrest with a record bail of 120 million hryvnias on Sergiy Kropiva - deputy head of the department for international legal cooperation, who is alleged to be a direct participant in the scheme.
In his official statement, Kravchenko categorically denied any guilt, calling the accusations "completely unfounded". He emphasized that he was resigning voluntarily: “This is a political decision and I made it consciously. I do not want the post of Prosecutor General to be used as a tool for political opposition“, his words are quoted by the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (bta.bg).
The repercussions and political consequences for Kiev
To 05:20 Bulgarian time President Volodymyr Zelensky has not yet made a public statement on the case, but local media such as “Ukrainian Truth“ (pravda.com.ua) confirm that the resignation was agreed upon at an extraordinary meeting on Monday.
International partners are expressing serious concern. As the world media BBC (bbc.com) notes in its analysis, Ukraine has the status of a candidate for membership in the European Union, which is directly linked to conducting a real and uncompromising fight against corruption. The revelations of large-scale criminal networks employing over 60,000 people in the country, according to international organizations, call into question internal stability in the context of an ongoing military conflict with Russia.
The replacement of the Prosecutor General is part of a series of purges and cabinet reshuffles that began earlier this year with the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko and the replacement of Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov, the Reuters news agency (reuters.com) reports.