PG Kravchenko accuses NABU and SAPO of pressuring Zelenskyy and lawmakers to cancel charges

“By putting pressure on the president, they [the anti-corruption bodies], in a way that has nothing in common with legal procedure or the letter of the law, have already reached the point where they ‘cancel’ charges against themselves,” Kravchenko said in a Telegram post.

“Is this possible in a state governed by the rule of law? Is this possible without pressure on the president?”

He insisted that the charge he signed against NABU Director Semen Kryvonos has no legal basis for being overturned.

“Look at the NABU chief, how he shakes when a journalist asks him an uncomfortable question about forging a child’s birth certificate in order to later be released under an amnesty from criminal liability for bribery,” Kravchenko added.

He also said that while serving as prosecutor general he received dozens of case files from anti-corruption bodies concerning charges against lawmakers, and that “some of them were baseless or legally stretched.”

“I did not block lawful decisions, but I also did not allow the prosecutor general’s signature to be turned into an instrument of political pressure by NABU and SAPO against elected lawmakers,” the former prosecutor general said.

“I fulfilled my promise to parliament: I did not sign a single politically motivated procedural decision — neither against representatives of the opposition nor against lawmakers from the ruling political force.”

Kravchenko also commented on Zelenskyy’s call for legislators to vote for his dismissal. According to Kravchenko, “neither the Constitution of Ukraine nor, all the more, the Law of Ukraine On the Legal Regime of Martial Law gives the president the right to demand decisions from lawmakers when the adoption of those decisions belongs to their exclusive powers.”

On Sept. 15, the Ukrainian legislature approved Kravchenko’s dismissal as prosecutor general, with 317 MPs voting in favor.

The charges against Kryvonos

On Sept. 14, Kravchenko, who had submitted his resignation on Sept. 7 amid reports of possible links to corruption schemes, pressed charges against NABU Director Semen Kryvonos.

He said Kryvonos was suspected of forging documents in order to obtain unlawful benefit on an especially large scale. Kravchenko also claimed that during Operation Carthage, NABU gained access to criminal case materials involving employees of anti-corruption bodies.

Kryvonos rejected the prosecutor general’s statement, calling the case fabricated and saying he had not been formally charged. NABU described the move as a continuation of attacks on anti-corruption institutions, while the Office of the Prosecutor General later said Kryvonos had in fact not been officially charged.

President Zelenskyy later said the prosecutor general must resign and urged parliament to support his dismissal.

It later emerged that Kravchenko had recorded a video address before leaving the country and is no longer in Ukraine. He says he is abroad on an official business trip.