Ukrainian parliament dismisses prosecutor general amid corruption scandal, anti-graft war and bizarre Paris trip

Ukraine's parliament dismissed Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko on Sept. 15, a week after he resigned and a day after he announced that he had approved charges against the head of the country's anti-corruption bureau.

The dismissal, which passed without a single vote against it, comes amid a confrontation between Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies and the Prosecutor General's Office, which is facing a National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) investigation into an alleged criminal group that protected scam call centers and helped launder millions of hryvnias.

NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) said Kravchenko's announcement about the charges against NABU chief Semen Kryvonos was part of a broader effort to undermine the independence of the anti-corruption agencies.

Late on Sept. 14, the Prosecutor General's Office posted a statement that seemed to signal division between the agency and its outgoing boss. The statement claimed the reported charges were "not true" but also "canceled" — by whose authority, it remains unclear.

Just before the vote, Kravchenko urged lawmakers not to vote under "pressure," while stressing that he "has not signed any politically motivated procedural decision" against them.

"I did not sign a single politically motivated procedural decision, neither regarding representatives of the opposition nor members of the ruling political party," he said.

Ukraine's Prosecutor General is required to sign notices of suspicion against lawmakers before they can be formally charged with a crime.

Kravchenko, who was long seen as a staunch loyalist of President Volodymyr Zelensky, resigned Sept. 7 following a meeting with the president and amid the corruption controversy.

The NABU investigation has raised questions about Kravchenko's alleged ties to a group that provided protection to scam call centers. In recordings obtained by the bureau, investigators refer to a "boss" who allegedly protected the group. The person's patronymic, Andriiovych, and former position as head of the State Tax Service match Kravchenko's details.

An earlier Telegram post by the Prosecutor General's Office indicated that investigators understood the "boss" mentioned in the recordings to be Kravchenko.

Kravchenko has not been formally charged in the case.

His announcement on Sept. 14 that he had approved charges against Kryvonos further escalated the confrontation between the Prosecutor General's Office and the anti-corruption agencies.

The dispute also unfolded as Kravchenko prepared to leave Ukraine. He requested permission to attend a Sept. 16 European conference on Ukrainian children in Paris, and the Kyiv Independent saw a signed and approved document authorizing his departure.

The conference on international accountability for Ukrainian children was organized by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The authorization was signed on Sept. 13, just hours before Kravchenko left the country and announced the charges against Kryvonos.

However, Kravchenko's name does not appear on the event's program, and PACE confirmed to the Kyiv Independent that he would not attend.

"Neither Ukraine's Prosecutor General - nor any member of his office - will take part in this meeting," a PACE spokesperson told the Kyiv Independent.

The Ukrainian president called on the parliament to swiftly dismiss Kravchenko.

"This prosecutor general has only one path: dismissal from office. That is exactly what I told him," Zelensky said on social media. "Ukraine has seen all the reasons."