KYIV, Sept 14 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Ukrainian lawmakers on Monday to swiftly support the removal of Ukraine’s prosecutor general as tensions escalated over a series of high-profile anti-corruption investigations.
Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko resigned his post last week after a corruption investigation reached his office. He was not charged with a crime or named a suspect in any investigation, but anti-corruption authorities had accused a subordinate of helping run a fraud ring.
Relations between Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdogs and other law-enforcement agencies have faced continuous strain over the past year, and Kravchenko said on Monday that he had signed a “suspicion notice” against the head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), one of the bodies investigating his office.
He alleged that NABU head Semen Kryvonos has forged official documents to obtain “an unlawful benefit on an exceptionally large scale” and accused him of a fictional adoption to “evade legal liability in court”.
NABU and SAPO, the other anti-graft agency involved in the probe that led to the prosecutor general’s resignation, said that Kravchenko’s statement was another step in a “systematic attack on independent anti-corruption bodies.” They denied the allegations in Kravchenko’s statement and said that Kryvonos had not been formally charged.
Under Ukrainian law, Zelenskiy needs to submit a formal request for parliament to accept Kravchenko’s resignation. Parliament was expected to hold a vote on Tuesday, several lawmakers said.
“There is only one path for this Prosecutor General: removal from office. That is what I told him,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app.
Kravchenko had been criticised by opponents for allegedly participating in an attempt to roll back the independence of NABU and SAPO last year – accusations he has denied.
The latest escalation in the power struggle comes at a time when Ukraine is struggling to meet its obligations on some of the anti-corruption reforms that are required to unlock vital funding from its international partners.
Corruption scandals also chip away at Zelenskiy’s trust and public approval ratings at a time when Ukraine is fighting for survival against Russia.
(Reporting by Reuters in Kyiv and Anna Pruchnicka in Gdansk; Editing by Tom Hogue and Alex Richardson)
