A morning was enough to shake Ukraine's top judicial leadership. Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko signed a suspicion notice on September 14 against Semen Kryvonos, director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau NABU. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hours later, President Volodymyr Zelensky initiated Kravchenko's dismissal, parliament registered the request that same afternoon, and by decree the president provisionally removed Kravchenko from office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The escalation was triggered by an investigation that had begun ten days earlier under the codename \u201eCarthage\u201c.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In early September, the anti-corruption authorities NABU and SAPO published details of an operation against an alleged protection system for fraudulent call centers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the center is Serhii Kropyva, deputy department head in the office of the prosecutor general, referred to as \u201echancellor\u201c on intercepted recordings. He is alleged to have collected protection money from call centers together with four other suspects and prevented investigations in return. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The High Anti-Corruption Court VAKS took him into pre-trial detention on September 6, alternatively a bail of 120 million hryvnias was set, which amounts to roughly 2.5 million euros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to investigators, allegedly illegal income was systematically laundered. More than 20 million hryvnias are said to have flowed into real estate, jewelry and luxury goods, another over 12 million hryvnias were transferred to straw men and more than 10 million hryvnias were disguised as alleged business income. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In published conversation recordings, Kropyva repeatedly mentions a superior \u201eboss\u201c who, according to evidence, previously led the Ukrainian tax authority and is addressed with the patronymic \u201eAndrijowytsch\u201c. This directed suspicion to Ruslan Andrijowytsch Kravchenko, who had led exactly that authority before his appointment as prosecutor general in June 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
NABU has not officially confirmed identification of Kravchenko as the \u201eboss\u201c, and at no point did he have the status of a suspect in the Carthage case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to court documents, Kropyva is said to have handled private matters from Kravchenko's circle, from renovation work to video surveillance to visa issues for his wife. Kravchenko denies any involvement in a protection system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On September 9, his first deputy Mariia Vdovychenko also submitted her resignation; her name is said to also appear in covert investigation documents according to media reports. With the suspicion notice against NABU chief Kryvonos and Kravchenko's almost simultaneous dismissal by Zelensky, an anti-corruption investigation became an open institutional confrontation between the prosecutor general's office and independent anti-corruption authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Austria and the EU, the proceedings are relevant primarily as a barometer for the rule of law in Ukraine, a central criterion in the ongoing EU accession process and for the disbursement of reconstruction and reform funds from Brussels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
NABU and SAPO were built in 2015, among other things with support from the EU and the USA, in order to pursue systematic corruption independently of political leadership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their institutional independence is considered a condition for further financial aid, in which Austria is also involved through EU contributions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All named persons are presumed innocent.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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