Ukrainian parliament dismisses Prosecutor General Kravchenko after he announced suspicion against NABU chief and left Ukraine

Why it matters

The events in question brought together three high-stakes issues for Ukraine. A sitting Prosecutor General attempted to issue suspicions against the heads of the country's two main anti-corruption bodies and then fled the country. The Verkhovna Rada dismissed him by a constitutional majority of 317 votes within a day, signalling a sharp break between the Office of the President and the head of the OPG. The 'Carthage' operation has implicated current OPG staff in a corruption scheme, raising questions about internal checks and balances in the agency. Finally, the unresolved question of who becomes the next head — and whether the EU-accession-linked competitive selection procedure with international experts is finally introduced — has direct implications for Ukraine's rule-of-law reform track and its path toward EU membership.

What happened

On 7 September 2026, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko submitted his resignation against the backdrop of information about his alleged involvement in corruption schemes. On the night of 14 September, Kravchenko left Ukraine in an official car on what was described as a business trip first to Lithuania and then to France, ostensibly to attend PACE hearings; his name was not on the PACE agenda. The same day, Kravchenko publicly announced suspicions against NABU director Semen Kryvonos and against a person close to SAP head Oleksandr Klymenko, alleging that Kryvonos had forged documents to obtain unlawful benefit in especially large amounts.

NABU director Kryvonos rejected the announcement, calling the case fabricated and saying no suspicion had been served on him; during a 14 September briefing he also said that from the published materials it was clear that the Security Service of Ukraine had participated in them. NABU characterised Kravchenko's announcement as a continuation of an attack on anti-corruption bodies. In the evening of 14 September, the OPG published a statement saying that no person — including the head of the anti-corruption body — had been notified of a suspicion in the proper legal form, that there were no legal grounds, and that the corresponding entries in the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations had been cancelled. President Zelensky suspended Kravchenko by decree the same evening and called on the Verkhovna Rada to support his dismissal.

On 15 September 2026, the Verkhovna Rada voted 317 in favour to back the dismissal; Zelensky signed the dismissal decree the same day. Anton Kovalsky, head of the Khmelnytskyi regional prosecutor's office, was appointed acting Prosecutor General. The same day, according to Ukrainska Pravda sources, NABU and SAP conducted a search at Lesia Karnaukh, a former deputy of Kravchenko and former acting head of the State Tax Service, whose powers the Cabinet of Ministers had terminated the previous day. NABU and SAP declined to comment on the search. The 'Carthage' operation, conducted by NABU together with SAP, targets a corruption scheme in which Office of the Prosecutor General representatives, including deputy head of the OPG Department of International Cooperation Serhii Kropyva, are suspects.

How Ukrainian sources describe it

Ukrainian coverage centres the conflict between the Office of the President (Bankova) and the anti-corruption infrastructure (NABU, SAP). Political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko and Anti-Corruption Action Centre head Daria Kaleniuk provide the main analytical commentary. Fesenko describes the Bankova's anti-crisis response as a multi-part strategy: distance from Kravchenko, including through dismissal; facilitate his departure abroad as a safety guarantee; indirectly support his information campaign against NABU and SAP; cancel the suspicion against Kryvonos to prevent institutional conflict; and find a 'new Kravchenko' — a young, controllable head of the OPG, initially in acting status — while continuing the information war against the anti-corruption leadership via proxies. Kaleniuk argues that Kravchenko was effectively allowed to leave so he could publicly voice the prepared suspicions and continue the attack on NABU and SAP, and emphasises that the procedure for appointing the next Prosecutor General — including the EU-linked competitive selection with international experts — matters more than the identity of the appointee. Sources consistently frame the 'Carthage' operation as an exposure of entrenched corruption within the OPG itself, and stress the unfulfilled EU-accession obligation to reform the appointment procedure rather than the personality of the next Prosecutor General.

Where reporting differs

Sources disagree on whether a suspicion was actually served on NABU director Semen Kryvonos: Kravchenko publicly announced one on 14 September and said NABU had accessed materials of criminal proceedings during 'Carthage'; Kryvonos denied being served and called the case fabricated; the OPG later stated that no suspicion had been properly notified, that there were no legal grounds, and that the ERDR entries had been cancelled. Some lawyers argue that despite the OPG's anonymous cancellation the suspicion remains both an informational and a legal fact.

Sources also disagree on whether Kravchenko's departure abroad was coordinated with the President's Office or was a unilateral move. Political scientist Fesenko considers the Bankova-coordinated version plausible — citing journalist Mykhailo Tkach's report of a database 'beacon' placed around 13 September and Arakhamia's alleged awareness — but describes the simultaneous announcement of the suspicion against Kryvonos as Kravchenko's own 'initiative' that broke the Bankova's plans. Kaleniuk of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre goes further and says Kravchenko was effectively allowed to leave so he could voice the prepared suspicions abroad.

There is also a discrepancy on the timing of Kravchenko's departure: one report says he left in the night before 14 September, while others say he left on 14 September itself.

Background

The 'Carthage' operation was conducted by NABU together with SAP and targets a corruption scheme in which Office of the Prosecutor General representatives are suspects, including deputy head of the OPG Department of International Cooperation Serhii Kropyva. Ruslan Kravchenko, who submitted his resignation on 7 September 2026, was the youngest Prosecutor General in Ukraine's history and the fourth during President Zelensky's term whose departure from office ended with him outside Ukraine — after Ruslan Riaboshapka, Iryna Venediktova and Andrii Kostin. Ukraine committed to introducing a competitive appointment procedure for the Prosecutor General, with international experts holding the decisive vote in the High Council of Justice, as part of EU-accession obligations under the 'Kachka–Kos plan' and as an EU-related promise dating back to 2014; the Cabinet of Ministers had not yet submitted its own draft law to implement this commitment. Lesia Karnaukh, a former deputy of Kravchenko and former acting head of the State Tax Service, was dismissed by the Cabinet on 14 September and was searched by NABU and SAP on 15 September.