Corruption in Kiev: Anti-graft agencies in crosshairs as Zelensky’s prosecutor general flees Ukraine

Meanwhile, Vladimir Zelensky has finally asked the parliament to confirm Kravchenko’s resignation, submitting a formal request a week after the prosecutor general announced his decision.

The Ukrainian leader is suspected of striking a deal with his appointee, allowing him to leave the country in exchange for signing off on formal accusations that would allow his eventual successor to go after the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).

Zelensky tried and failed to place the two Western-backed agencies under the prosecutor general’s office last year. The move was reversed after a wave of mass protests and threats by foreign donors to withhold aid.

Kravchenko’s move was not entirely unexpected. Ukrainska Pravda reported last week, citing law enforcement sources, that prosecutors had been ordered to compile materials on NABU and SAPO, suggesting that the prosecutor general was preparing a counterattack against the anti-corruption agencies. Exiled Ukrainian journalist and politician Anatoly Shariy had claimed allegations against Krivonos and Klimenko were incoming.

Zelensky has lost several key members of his inner circle to NABU and SAPO investigations since last November, when the agencies accused his long-time business associate Timur Mindich of heading a criminal organization that allegedly extracted kickbacks from contractors working with state-owned nuclear energy giant Energoatom. Investigators say around $100 million passed through the group’s money laundering operation.

The developments have fueled expectations that Zelensky’s government could seek to push back against the increasingly powerful anti-corruption agencies.

The prosecutor general shared the documents in question. NABU disputed that they had been submitted to a public criminal justice database.

The latest political storm in Kiev escalated on Monday morning, when Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko published a video statement on his office’s official account.

Read more Zelensky’s disgraced prosecutor general attacks anti-graft agencies and flees country In the more than seven-minute clip, Kravchenko said he had signed a notice of suspicion against NABU Director Semyon Krivonos and announced legal steps against a person close to SAPO head Aleksandr Klimenko.