Prosecutor General Kravchenko releases more allegations against NABU director Kryvonos

The video details events that took place between March and November 2014, when Kryvonos – referred to as “Janus” in the recordings – headed the Obukhiv District-and-City Justice Administration registration service in Kyiv Oblast.

Kravchenko claims that Kryvonos, along with then-Starobezradychi village council head Petro Horbachenko and others, demanded a $72,000 bribe from Vladyslav Ruzmatov – codenamed “Bormental” – to secure a quarter-hectare plot of land in the village of Stari Bezradychi.

According to the files released by Kravchenko, Ruzmatov originally asked Horbachenko for a free land allotment, but Horbachenko countered that it would cost $120,000.

The prosecutor alleges that the NABU director planned to use a proxy to obtain a free land allotment and then resell it to Ruzmatov, using an intermediary named Vitaliy Bulashenko to coordinate the sale.

According to Kravchenko, the suspects also undervalued the property to lower the tax bill, hiring an appraiser who valued the land at $149,000 instead of its actual $345,000 value.

Kravchenko noted that those involved subsequently learned of the investigation and abandoned the deal, at which point Kryvonos cut off phone communication and broke contact with his alleged accomplices. 

Kravchenko accuses Kryvonos of soliciting a bribe and orchestrating the falsification of a document, adding that the matter was reviewed during the selection process for the NABU director position.

The day before releasing the land fraud details, Kravchenko published a separate segment of his investigation alleging that Kryvonos orchestrated a sham adoption in 2009 to escape prosecution in a student vote-buying case.

Kravchenko published a video claiming that Kryvonos – who was not the NABU director at the time – was suspected of bribing university students in Kyiv to vote for Yulia Tymoshenko’s party. The criminal proceedings were subsequently closed in 2010.

The charges against Kryvonos

Outgoing Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko filed criminal charges against NABU Director Semen Kryvonos on September 14.

Kravchenko claimed that he suspected Kryvonos of forging official documents “to secure a particularly large illicit benefit.” The disgraced prosecutor general alleged that during Operation Carthage and related searches, NABU obtained access to case files on the leadership of anti-corruption agencies during their corruption probe.

Semen Kryvonos hit back, stating that he has not yet been formally charged and calling the case against him fabricated. NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) described Kravchenko’s statements and actions as a “continuation of a systematic attack on independent anti-corruption institutions,” adding that no official charges had been filed.

Zelenskyy responded by saying Kravchenko had only one option remaining – dismissal from office – and called on the Ukrainian Parliament to support his resignation.

Kravchenko recorded a video address before fleeing the country, using a scheduled business trip to Lithuania as his justification.

The Ukrainian Parliament will vote on Kravchenko’s dismissal on September 15.