Ukraine anti-corruption court remands prosecutor's office official in custody in 'Carthage' case; prosecutors allege ties to prosecutor general

Why it matters

The case strikes at the heart of Ukraine's law-enforcement establishment: the suspect is a senior official of the very body charged with prosecuting corruption, and prosecutors allege he served as the personal "fixer" for the prosecutor general himself. It is the latest in a series of high-profile NABU and SAP operations exposing corruption in prosecutorial and judicial institutions, and has already triggered an open institutional confrontation between the OPG and the anti-corruption bodies over the legality of nighttime searches of OPG leadership offices.

What happened

On 4 September 2026, NABU and SAP announced "Operation Carthage", exposing a criminal organization allegedly led by Serhiy Kropyva, a deputy head in the Office of the Prosecutor General, that prosecutors say systematically took bribes from fraudulent call centers and laundered the proceeds. Five persons were notified of suspicion under Articles 255 and 209 of Ukraine's Criminal Code, which carry up to 15 years' imprisonment. According to court materials read by the SAP prosecutor on 6 September, Kropyva is described as a "trusted person" of Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko who organized and coordinated repairs at Kravchenko's house in Kozyn (including installing a generator, video surveillance, and internet), helped arrange a US visa for Kravchenko's wife, organized Kravchenko's birthday celebrations in Madrid, and arranged flights for Kravchenko's wife and cohabitant to Spain ahead of his business trip there.

On 6 September, a judge of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) placed Kropyva in custody until 2 November 2026 with an alternative bail of 120 million UAH (the SAP prosecutor had requested 200 million UAH). If bail is posted, Kropyva must surrender foreign passports, appear on every summons, and refrain from contact with Kravchenko, his deputy Maria Vdovychenko, and other involved persons. His cohabitant Yelyzaveta Ivakhnenko, identified by anti-corruption researchers as "Muza" from the NABU recordings, was to have her preventive measure hearing scheduled separately. The defense announced it would appeal the decision.

Prosecutor General Kravchenko denied any connection to covering up illegal call centers or to a safe shown in photographs circulated by NABU. He suspended Kropyva from duty and ordered preparation of a personnel decision to dismiss him, while stressing that guilt must be established by the court. He also ordered an audit of the Department of International Cooperation and the cybercrime unit, and polygraph tests for relevant OPG employees. Kravchenko said the OPG had cooperated fully with detectives, citing over 1,050 searches and the shutdown of around 340 illegal call centers in the past 12 months.

How Ukrainian sources describe it

Ukrainian coverage focuses on the personal and institutional implications for Prosecutor General Kravchenko. Outlets detail the alleged personal-services arrangements Kropyva is accused of performing for Kravchenko — repairs at the Kozyn house, a US visa for Kravchenko's wife, hotel bookings in Madrid, and birthday-trip logistics — and publish Kravchenko's public denials alongside Bihus.Info findings about an undeclared house in Kozyn registered to a 73-year-old woman not listed as his relative. Coverage frames the case as an institutional confrontation: SAP prosecutors in court read out intercepted communications tying Kropyva to Kravchenko, while the OGP pushed back publicly against the legality of NABU's nighttime searches of leadership offices and disputed the framing of the search warrant.

How international sources describe it

All sources in the supplied input are Ukrainian (country tag UA, Ukrainian-language outlets including Ukrainska Pravda, Babel, LIGA.net, Ukrinform, Novynarnya, ZN.UA, NV, Interfax-Ukraine, hromadske, and Radio Svoboda). No international source metadata is provided, so no comparative international framing can be drawn from the input.

Where reporting differs

Kropyva's exact OPG title is described inconsistently: some sources call him head of the OPG cyber department, others deputy head of the Department of International Cooperation. Sources also disagree on Prosecutor General Kravchenko's date of birth — 4 March in some outlets, 14 March in others — though they agree his March 2026 business trip to Spain coincided with his birthday.

The OPG and NABU/SAP also diverge on what happened on the evening of 4 September. OPG spokesperson Mariana Haiovska initially told Ukrainska Pravda that no investigative actions took place at Kravchenko's home or office; the OPG later acknowledged that around midnight NABU detectives conducted searches in OGP service premises used by Kravchenko, his first deputy, and other staff. Ukrainska Pravda sources reported searches at Kravchenko, his deputy Mariya Vdovychenko, and Odesa OVA head Oleh Kiper. The size of the Kozyn house is reported by Bihus.Info as approximately 300 m², while Kravchenko says 280 m².

Media also reported that Kravchenko initially could not be located for over 12 hours, with ZN.UA sources placing him at the Dobrobut clinic in Kyiv; Kravchenko called these reports untrue. SAP prosecutors alleged that Kropyva bought Kravchenko's wife a new laptop; Kravchenko denied this and said she has no new laptop. Kravchenko argues the Kozyn house will appear in his 2026 declaration and was not yet in use earlier; anti-corruption observers note its absence (along with his wife) from his 2025 declaration.

Background

'Operation Carthage' was announced by NABU and SAP on 4 September 2026. Five persons have been notified of suspicion under Articles 255 (creation and leadership of a criminal organization) and 209 (laundering) of the Ukrainian Criminal Code, which carry up to 15 years' imprisonment. Serhiy Kropyva, identified in NABU materials by the alias "Chancellor" ("Канцлер"), has worked in the prosecutor's office since August 2025. Prosecutors say the group was created in mid-2025 and ran a scheme of systematic bribes from fraudulent call centers, with participants allegedly acquiring over UAH 20 million in assets and possibly holding more than UAH 10 million in relatives' accounts.

From December 2024 to June 2025, Ruslan Kravchenko headed the State Tax Service before being appointed Prosecutor General; Lesya Karnaukh has served as acting head of the STS since then. Bihus.Info journalists identified an approximately 300 m² house in Kozyn (Kyiv Oblast) allegedly used by Kravchenko and registered in early 2026 to a 73-year-old woman who is not listed among his relatives; Kravchenko says his family rents a 280 m² house in Kozyn and moved in on 1 May 2026.