Zelensky dismisses embattled prosecutor after new attack on Western-backed anti-graft agencies: As it happened
Political infighting in Kiev has intensified since corruption accusations compelled Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko to tender his resignation last week. The disgraced official, who left Ukraine overnight, has accused the graft investigators who took him down of pursuing a power grab.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Zelensky has finally asked the parliament to confirm Kravchenko’s resignation, submitting a formal request a week after the prosecutor general announced his decision. Zelensky signed a decree dismissing the prosecutor after the resignation was upheld by a parliamentary committee. A full-fledged vote on the matter is expected to be held in parliament on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian leader is suspected of striking a deal with his appointee, allowing him to leave the country in exchange for signing off on formal accusations that would allow his eventual successor to go after the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO). The heads of the agencies, however, have denied receiving any formal documents, mocking them as a “Telegram notice of suspicion.”
Zelensky tried and failed to place the two Western-backed agencies under the prosecutor general’s office last year. The move was reversed within a few days after a wave of mass protests and threats by foreign donors to withhold aid.
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14 September 2026
20:48 GMTKravchenko has disputed the claim that no notice of suspicion was served, circulating a purported screenshot of a postal tracker indicating the delivery was being processed. The dismissed prosecutor claimed his agency was pressed by “emissaries” from NABU to revoke the notice “at any cost,” while asserting that a “lawful procedural decision cannot be overturned by backroom deals.”
- 20:00 GMT
The Prosecutor General’s office has disputed the claims made by Kravchenko, stating that no “notices of suspicion” have been issued to the NABU leadership. There was no “legal basis” for such actions, the agency said.
Earlier in the day, NABU director Semyon Krivonos denied receiving any official documents, mocking the supposed move by Kravchenko as issuing a “Telegram notice of suspicion.”
- 19:43 GMT
Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergey Koretsky has announced the dismissal of the interim chief of Ukraine’s Fiscal Service, Lesya Karnaukh. While the PM did not provide any reason for the decision, it could be related to the Kravchenko scandal, given that he led the service until becoming prosecutor general last June, with his deputy Karnaukh taking over as caretaker fiscal chief.
- 19:02 GMT
Shortly after posting his address on YouTube, Kravchenko confirmed the authenticity of the newly set-up channel on his Telegram. The suspended prosecutor also re-posted the first batch of incriminating materials he dropped earlier in the day, related to voter bribery in 2009 and Krivonos’ alleged fictitious adoption of a child to escape punishment.
- 18:32 GMT
Kravchenko has apparently set up a YouTube channel, pledging to release incriminating materials against his opponents. In a video address posted to the channel, the prosecutor described his resignation as a “conscious political decision, not an admission of any wrongdoing.”
The NABU and SAPO operation against the alleged scammer ring protected by the prosecutor’s office was actually a coordinated attack against him, Kravchenko claimed. The true goal of Operation Carthage was to derail an ongoing investigation conducted by his agency and gain “access to the materials of criminal proceedings regarding the leaders and employees of NABU and SAPO,” he asserted.
- 18:09 GMT
Over the past few years, phone scams have grown into a sprawling industry in Ukraine. The ever-evolving fraudulent schemes have extensively targeted Russian citizens, defrauding them of their savings and pushing them into suicide and violent crimes.
Ukraine has become the main source of such fraudulent activities in Russia, with the Russian authorities estimating more than 90% of scammer calls originate in the neighboring country.
The industry is estimated to have generated a few billion dollars annually in recent years from Russian victims alone – and it has expanded to other ‘markets’ as well, with the scammers defrauding people all over the globe.
- 17:27 GMT
The scandal around the Prosecutor General’s office erupted last week, when NABU and SAPO said they uncovered a major scam call center scheme, with high-ranking employees of the agency allegedly shielding it from the law. The participants of the scheme allegedly reported to an individual known under the alias ‘Boss’, believed to be Kravchenko himself.
The anti-graft agencies at the time publicized the evidence they recovered during searches in central Kiev, including a safe stuffed with dollar and euro bills. Some media reported the safe was actually located at Kravchenko’s office, while the chief prosecutor vehemently denied such allegations. Still, no restrictive measures were applied to the top official, who ultimately managed to leave the freely country.
- 16:44 GMT
PACE has denied that the disgraced prosecutor Kravchenko was expected to participate in the upcoming hearing on Ukrainian children in Paris in any capacity. Neither Kravchenko nor “any member of his office” will be present at the event, “neither as a speaker nor as a participant,” the organization told Ukrainian media.
Earlier in the day, the abrupt departure of the prosecutor was reported to be related to a work trip with the PACE gathering listed as the destination.
- 15:30 GMT
Klimenko claimed that intelligence obtained by the anti-corruption agencies indicates the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has been involved in orchestrating the latest attack on NABU and SAPO. Krivonos has also raised similar claims.
“Two weeks ago, SBU officers attempted to gain access to the court system’s log to see which NABU motions were being submitted to the [High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine],” he said.
- 14:58 GMT
Krivonos has blamed Moscow for scam-call centers widely operating in Ukraine, describing it a “Russian subversion act.” The NABU chief pointed at the fact that scammers have been targeting citizens of EU countries to back up the allegation.
“In other words, this is purely work for the Russians,” Krivonos asserted, adding that he had discussed the matter with Zelensky.
The official, however, failed to mention the fact that Ukrainian scammers have been targeting mostly Russians for years already, with the scale of their operations sharply growing since the escalation of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022. The malicious actors have repeatedly recruited their victims to stage terrorist attacks and sabotage in Russia, while the proceeds of the scams have been allegedly funneled directly to bankroll the Ukrainian military.
