Ukraine’s Prosecutor General announces suspicion against NABU director, then leaves the country; Zelensky moves to dismiss him
Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, who had resigned a week earlier amid the NABU/SAPO “Carthage” operation against his own office, announced on 14 September that he had signed a notice of suspicion against NABU director Semen Kryvonos. The same night he left Ukraine. President Zelensky publicly called for his immediate dismissal, submitted the motion to the Verkhovna Rada, and signed a decree suspending him under martial-law provisions. The European Commission said it was aware of the events and stressed that independent anti-corruption bodies are a cornerstone of the rule of law in Ukraine.
Key points
- On the morning of 14 September, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko published a video address saying he had signed a notice of suspicion against NABU director Semen Kryvonos for forging official documents to obtain unlawful benefit in especially large amounts and for fictitious adoption to avoid accountability; he also announced a suspicion against a person close to SAPO head Oleksandr Klymenko.
- NABU and SAPO said that no suspicion had been officially served on Kryvonos and that the OGP had cancelled the relevant entries in the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations; in the evening the OGP publicly stated that no one had been notified in the legally prescribed manner.
- President Zelensky said within an hour that “there is only one path for this Prosecutor General: dismissal from office,” submitted the dismissal motion to the Verkhovna Rada, and in the evening signed Decree No. 905/2026 suspending Kravchenko from the post under Article 11(2) of the Law on the Legal Regime of Martial Law.
- Kravchenko had submitted his resignation on 7 September against the backdrop of NABU/SAPO “Operation Carthage,” which exposed an alleged criminal organisation led by OGP official Serhiy Kropyva accused of “roofing” fraudulent call centres; five suspects have been detained or bailed, with Kropyva held with alternative bail of UAH 120 million.
- According to Ukrainska Pravda sources, Kravchenko crossed the Ukrainian border at about 02:30 on the night of 13–14 September in an official vehicle; Kravchenko confirmed he was abroad on a “foreign business trip,” citing an order dated 13 September to attend a PACE Parliamentary Network hearing in Paris, while PACE spokesperson Nathalie Bargellini said neither Kravchenko nor his office would participate.
- Head of the “Servant of the People” faction Davyd Arakhamia said the Verkhovna Rada would vote on Kravchenko’s dismissal on 15 September; the parliamentary Committee on Law Enforcement backed the motion the same day.
- European Commission spokesperson Guillaume Mercier said the EC was aware of the developments but did not comment on individual cases, reiterated the EU’s zero-tolerance policy on corruption, and said independent anti-corruption bodies are a “cornerstone” of the rule of law in Ukraine.
- Head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Budanov said the situation with the suspicions against anti-corruption bodies and Kravchenko’s sudden departure abroad “is not normal and maximally harms Ukraine’s image in the world.”
Why it matters
The clash strikes at the heart of Ukraine’s anti-corruption architecture at a moment when Brussels is explicitly tying Kyiv’s EU path to the protection of NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO). By publicly signing a suspicion against the head of NABU and then leaving the country the same night, Kravchenko forced an immediate choice on the President and the Verkhovna Rada, with the European Commission publicly re-stating its expectations. The crisis is unfolding on top of “Operation Carthage,” in which NABU and SAPO have already moved against senior officials inside the Prosecutor General’s own office, so the institutional stakes run in both directions.
What happened
On the morning of 14 September 2026, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko published a video address in which he said he had signed a notice of suspicion against NABU director Semen Kryvonos for forging official documents to obtain unlawful benefit in particularly large amounts and for fictitious adoption to artificially create grounds for avoiding court responsibility. The published suspicion text, around 28–30 pages, covers episodes from 2009 (a fictitious adoption connected to a 2008–2009 vote-buying case) and 2014 (an alleged improper-benefit request during Kryvonos’s work at the Obukhiv city-district justice department). Kravchenko also announced a second suspicion against a person close to SAPO head Oleksandr Klymenko, accusing that person of influencing judges of the High Anti-Corruption Court, offering them improper benefit, and facilitating evasion of mobilisation; the name was redacted in the published extract.
NABU and SAPO rejected the move, saying that as of that morning no suspicion had been officially served on Kryvonos and characterising Kravchenko’s announcement as a “continuation of a systematic attack on independent anti-corruption bodies.” At a joint briefing in Kyiv, Kryvonos said he had received a Telegram message rather than a paper document and called it an “incomprehensible invention.” Klymenko said members of his family and close persons had received no suspicions. NABU and SAPO also said that during the Carthage searches at the Office of the Prosecutor General (OGP) only a reference listing detectives under counterintelligence cases had been seized, not criminal-case files, contradicting Kravchenko’s claim that protected case materials had been stolen.
Within an hour of Kravchenko’s address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted that “there is only one path for this Prosecutor General: dismissal from office” and called on MPs to back his dismissal urgently. He submitted the formal dismissal motion to the Verkhovna Rada the same day; the parliamentary Committee on Law Enforcement supported it and head of the Servant of the People faction Davyd Arakhamia said the vote would take place on 15 September. In the evening Zelenskyy signed Decree No. 905/2026 suspending Kravchenko under Article 11(2) of the Law on the Legal Regime of Martial Law.
Ukrainska Pravda, citing law-enforcement sources, reported that Kravchenko crossed the Ukrainian border at about 02:30 on the night of 13–14 September in an official vehicle, with some outlets citing Lithuania or Brussels as the stated destination; Kravchenko and the OGP later said the trip was a self-issued 5-day order from 13 September to attend a PACE Parliamentary Network hearing on Ukrainian children, although PACE spokesperson Nathalie Bargellini said neither Kravchenko nor his office would take part. Kravchenko confirmed via Telegram that he was abroad on a “foreign business trip” to inform international partners about the “real state of affairs” in the anti-corruption system. Kravchenko’s wife had reportedly left Ukraine on 12 September via Moldova.
The European Commission, through spokesperson Guillaume Mercier, said Brussels was aware of the events, declined to comment on individual cases, reaffirmed the EU’s zero-tolerance approach to corruption and stressed that independent anti-corruption bodies are a cornerstone of the rule of law in Ukraine. Head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Budanov said the situation “maximally harms Ukraine’s image in the world.” Kravchenko had submitted his resignation on 7 September in the wake of NABU/SAPO “Operation Carthage,” which on 4 September exposed an alleged criminal organisation led by OGP official Serhiy Kropyva over the alleged “roofing” of fraudulent call centres; five suspects have been notified, with Kropyva and Yelyzaveta Ivakhnenko held by the High Anti-Corruption Court and Kropyva’s bail set at UAH 120 million.
How international sources describe it
The European Commission, through spokesperson Guillaume Mercier, declined to comment on the individual case but used the briefing to restate two long-standing conditions of Ukraine’s EU path: a zero-tolerance policy on corruption, and protection for independent anti-corruption bodies, which it called the “cornerstone” of the rule of law. Mercier linked these expectations explicitly to the “Foundations” cluster of accession negotiations and to the agreed Kachka–Kós list of ten priority reforms, including the still-unfulfilled requirement that the Prosecutor General be selected through a competitive process. The statement signals that Brussels is treating the open clash between the Prosecutor General and NABU/SAPO not as an internal personnel dispute but as a test of Ukraine’s institutional commitments under the EU accession framework.
Where reporting differs
Whether a suspicion was actually and validly served on NABU director Semen Kryvonos is contested. Kravchenko says he signed it and later sent it by post with receipts; NABU, SAPO and Kryvonos say no paper document was personally served or delivered; in the evening the OGP itself stated that no one had been notified in the legally prescribed manner and that the relevant URDR entries had been cancelled.
Sources also disagree on where Kravchenko actually travelled. Kravchenko and the OGP say he was on a 5-day order from 13 September to attend a PACE Parliamentary Network hearing on Ukrainian children in Paris, but PACE spokesperson Nathalie Bargellini said neither Kravchenko nor his office would take part; Ukrainska Pravda sources say the original pretext at the border was a business trip to Lithuania, with other outlets citing Brussels.
Sources disagree on whether Kravchenko’s departure abroad required President Zelenskyy’s permission (the Anti-Corruption Action Center says yes and alleges it was given in exchange for signing the suspicion against Kryvonos) or whether the Prosecutor General can authorise his own travel, as MP Serhiy Vlasenko argued.
Kravchenko claims that during “Carthage” searches NABU/SAPO obtained access to protected case files against their own staff and stole documents; NABU, SAPO and Kryvonos say only a reference (dovidka) listing detectives under counterintelligence cases was seized, not the underlying case files.
Kravchenko claims he had been “politically restrained” from issuing the suspicions by President Zelenskyy; sources in the Office of the President told RBC-Ukraine, NV and LIGA.net that the move was an uncoordinated personal initiative by the Prosecutor General.
Background
Ukraine’s main anti-corruption bodies are the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), a detective agency, and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), which prosecutes NABU cases before the High Anti-Corruption Court. They were created after the 2014 Maidan revolution with EU and IMF backing and have long been an explicit benchmark for Ukraine’s EU accession path.
On 4 September 2026, NABU and SAPO announced “Operation Carthage,” exposing an alleged criminal organisation led by OGP official Serhiy Kropyva, deputy head of the Department of International Legal Cooperation, who was accused of systematically taking bribes to “roof” fraudulent call centres and laundering the proceeds. Five suspects have been notified; the High Anti-Corruption Court remanded Kropyva in custody with alternative bail of UAH 120 million, also placing Yelyzaveta Ivakhnenko, Serhiy Kutsyi and Oleksandr Didych in custody or on bail. Recordings in the case mention a figure referred to as “Shef/Boss,” identified in media as a former head of the State Tax Service.
Ruslan Kravchenko was appointed Prosecutor General in June 2025 after heading the State Tax Service from December 2024 to June 2025; he submitted his resignation on 7 September 2026 in the wake of Carthage but, as the sitting Prosecutor General, remained in office until the Verkhovna Rada voted. The published suspicion against NABU director Kryvonos covers two episodes: a 2008–2009 alleged fictitious adoption linked to a vote-buying case, and a 2014 alleged improper-benefit request tied to a land deal at the Obukhiv city-district justice department, where the case file bears a 2014 SBU investigation number.