Deputies voted 317 to remove Ruslan Kravchenko as prosecutor general, lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said. President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had suspended Kravchenko the previous day, submitted the dismissal motion and signed the decree, which was published on the presidential website.
The formal trigger for the suspension was an operation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) codenamed Carthage, targeting a network of fraudulent call centers. Searches were carried out, including in office premises used by Kravchenko and his first deputy. A senior official of the prosecutor general's office was arrested.
According to investigators, the scheme was led by 42-year-old Serhiy Kropyva, who served as deputy head of the international legal cooperation department of the Prosecutor General's Office. He is accused of illegally receiving 42 million hryvnias. In recordings of intercepted conversations published by NABU, a "Chief" appears alongside Kropyva, who sometimes addresses him by his patronymic, "Andreyevich." This raised questions about Ruslan Andreyevich Kravchenko, but he rejected the accusations, saying that "conversations are just conversations."
After a conversation with Zelensky, Kravchenko submitted a resignation letter but formally remained in office until the Rada vote. On the morning of September 14, he published a video address in which he said he had signed a suspicion notice against NABU director Semen Kryvonos. According to Kravchenko, Kryvonos is suspected of forging official documents to obtain an unlawful benefit and of a fictitious adoption. He also said he had issued a suspicion notice to SAP head Oleksandr Klymenko.
Kryvonos and Klymenko said they had received no such notices. The Prosecutor General's Office later said no such decisions had been made. Kravchenko claims the purpose of the Carthage operation was to seize materials concerning the leaders and staff of NABU and SAP, some of which were "stolen."
At the time his address was published, Kravchenko was already outside Ukraine. He had crossed the border the previous night, traveling on a business trip to France with a document bearing his own signature. The Prosecutor General's Office confirmed his participation in hearings of the PACE Parliamentary Network, but he is not on the list of speakers. Kravchenko himself said he had left on an official business trip.
Sources differ: Kravchenko claims suspicions were issued against Kryvonos and Klymenko, while both heads of the anti-corruption agencies and the Prosecutor General's Office say no such decisions were made. A source in the president's circle told the BBC's Ukrainian service: "It is obvious that Kravchenko has gone mad."