Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged lawmakers to quickly support the dismissal of Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko from office amid escalating tensions over a series of high-profile anti-corruption investigations, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
Kravchenko resigned last week after a corruption investigation reached the office he headed. He has not been charged, he has not been named as a suspect in any investigation, but anti-corruption authorities have accused a subordinate of aiding an organized fraud group.
Relations between independent anti-corruption institutions and other law enforcement agencies in Ukraine have been under constant strain over the past year. Today, Kravchenko announced that he had signed a notice of suspicion against Semyon Krivonos, the director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), one of the institutions investigating the prosecutor's office.
Kravchenko claims that Krivonos forged official documents in order to obtain "unlawful benefits in particularly large amounts" and that he carried out a fictitious adoption in order to "avoid legal liability before the court".
NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), the other institution involved in the investigation that preceded Kravchenko's resignation, described his statement as another step in a "systemic attack on independent anti-corruption bodies". Both institutions rejected his claims and said that Krivonos had not been formally charged.
Under Ukrainian law, Zelensky must formally submit a motion to parliament to accept the prosecutor general's resignation. Several lawmakers said the vote was expected on Tuesday.
“There is only one way out for this prosecutor general, removal from office. That's what I told him,“ Zelensky wrote on the social network “Telegram“.
Kravchenko has been criticized by his opponents for his alleged involvement in last year's attempt to limit the independence of NABU and SAPO - charges he denies. The institutional conflict is escalating again at a time when Ukraine is struggling to implement some of the anti-corruption reforms needed to secure key funding from its international partners. Corruption scandals are also undermining public trust and support for Zelensky at a time when Ukraine is fighting for its survival, fighting a war against Russia.