Zelensky appoints Anton Kovalsky as acting Prosecutor General of Ukraine
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed decree No. 946/2026 appointing Anton Kovalsky, previously the head of the Khmelnytskyi Regional Prosecutor's Office, as acting Prosecutor General of Ukraine. The appointment comes days after the Verkhovna Rada voted to accept the resignation of Ruslan Kravchenko, whose dismissal followed an NABU and SAP investigation into a criminal organization operating in the Office of the Prosecutor General.
Key points
- President Zelensky signed decree No. 946/2026 appointing Anton Kovalsky as acting Prosecutor General, citing Part 2 of Article 11 of Ukraine's Law on the Legal Regime of Martial Law.
- Sources disagree on the date of the decree: most say September 17, 2026, while one dates it to Thursday, September 19.
- On September 15, the Verkhovna Rada voted 317–0 to accept Ruslan Kravchenko's resignation as Prosecutor General.
- Kravchenko was suspended on September 14 after publicly announcing he had signed a notice of suspicion against NABU director Semen Kryvonis; the Office of the Prosecutor General later denied Kryvonis had been served.
- Kovalsky, born May 12, 1984, in Vinnytsia, previously headed the Khmelnytskyi Regional Prosecutor's Office from July 1, 2025, and earlier the Chernivtsi Regional Prosecutor's Office.
- Kravchenko's dismissal occurred amid an NABU and SAP investigation into a criminal organization in the Office of the Prosecutor General allegedly receiving bribes from fraudulent call centers and laundering assets.
- Sources disagree on when NABU and SAP announced that investigation: September 4 or September 5.
Why it matters
The Prosecutor General's office is a central institution in Ukraine's law-enforcement system, and its leadership shapes investigations into high-profile corruption cases. Zelensky's appointment of an acting — rather than permanent — Prosecutor General, made under martial-law provisions, leaves the office in a position analysts say is more dependent on the Office of the President.
What happened
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed decree No. 946/2026 appointing Anton Kovalsky as acting Prosecutor General of Ukraine. The decree cites Part 2 of Article 11 of Ukraine's Law on the Legal Regime of Martial Law, which allows the president to install an acting Prosecutor General. Kovalsky had served as head of the Khmelnytskyi Regional Prosecutor's Office since July 1, 2025; before that he led the Chernivtsi Regional Prosecutor's Office from November 2021 and was deputy head of the Vinnytsia Regional Prosecutor's Office from September 2020 to October 2021. He graduated from the National Academy of the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine in 2011 and began his career that same year.
Kovalsky's appointment follows the rapid removal of Ruslan Kravchenko. On the night of September 14, Kravchenko left Ukraine citing a business trip that, according to Ukrainska Pravda, was a five-day stay in Paris to attend PACE hearings on Ukrainian children, though he was not listed among the event's speakers. That same morning, Kravchenko publicly stated he had signed a notice of suspicion against NABU director Semen Kryvonis and a person close to SAP head Oleksandr Klymenko; by evening, the Office of the Prosecutor General denied that a suspicion had been issued, saying the corresponding entries had been removed from the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations. On September 14, Zelensky issued a decree suspending Kravchenko under the same legal provision later used for Kovalsky. On September 15, Zelensky signed a decree dismissing Kravchenko, and the Verkhovna Rada voted 317–0 to accept his resignation.
Sources disagree on the precise date of the appointment decree — most cite September 17, 2026, while one dates it to Thursday, September 19. Sources also differ on the date NABU and SAP announced the criminal-organization investigation, with one source saying September 4 and another September 5.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
Ukrainian coverage frames the appointment through the institutional standoff between the Office of the President and Ukraine's anti-corruption bodies. Outlets devote substantial space to Kovalsky's biographical and career background, the autumn-2024 Khmelnytskyi disability-prosecutor scandal that preceded his appointment there, and commentary arguing that an acting Prosecutor General appointed under martial law is dependent on the Office of the President and limited in action because Zelensky did not propose a permanent candidate to parliament.
Where reporting differs
Sources disagree on the date the decree appointing Anton Kovalsky was signed: most sources cite September 17, 2026, while one source dates the decree to Thursday, September 19. Sources also disagree on when NABU and SAP announced the exposure of the criminal organization in the Office of the Prosecutor General: one source says September 4, another says September 5.
Background
Under Ukraine's Law on the Legal Regime of Martial Law, the president may appoint an acting Prosecutor General during wartime. The law-enforcement system includes NABU (National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine), SAP (Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office), and HACC (High Anti-Corruption Court), which have played central roles in recent corruption investigations. Kovalsky's appointment to head the Khmelnytskyi Regional Prosecutor's Office in July 2025 followed a 2024 scandal in which roughly 50 prosecutors in the region registered disabilities; his predecessor Oleksiy Oliynyk was dismissed on October 17, 2024, and then-Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin resigned in the wake of the affair. Ruslan Kravchenko was appointed Prosecutor General on June 17, 2025; he had headed the State Tax Service from December 2024 to June 2025.