Hours after charging Kryvonos, ex-PG Kravchenko drops security and flees country
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Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko (Photo: Ruslan Kravchenko / Facebook)
Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko waived his government security detail just hours after filing criminal charges against National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) Director Semen Kryvonos, Ukrainska Pravda reported on September 16.
“The Prosecutor General's statement regarding the temporary waiver of his personal security detail is dated 1:00 a.m. on September 14 – approximately two hours after charges against the NABU director were filed in the criminal registry,” the outlet wrote.
The move suggests Kravchenko knew he was not leaving the country on a routine business trip, as keeping a government security detail would have made it easy for authorities to track his whereabouts.
The timing suggests Kravchenko signed his security waiver while already at the border, crossing into Poland at the Shehyni checkpoint at 2:30 a.m. – just ninety minutes after dropping his protection and three hours after filing charges against the anti-corruption chief.
Kravchenko’s wife left the country a few days earlier on September 12, crossing into Moldova before traveling to neighboring Romania.
Word of Kravchenko’s plans to flee had been circulating among top government officials several days before his departure, according to Ukrainska Pravda.
The charges against Kryvonos and Kravchenko’s flight
Former 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.
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.”
Zelenskyy responded by saying Kravchenko had only one option remaining – dismissal from office – and called on the Ukrainian Parliament to support his resignation. The president later signed a decree on September 14 dismissing Kravchenko as prosecutor general.
Kravchenko recorded a video address before fleeing the country, using a scheduled business trip to Lithuania as his justification.
The Prosecutor General’s Office pushed back on the evening of September 14, stating that the charges filed against Kryvonos were completely unsubstantiated and lacked any legal basis.
Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, voted 317–0 on September 15 to approve the resignation of Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, completing his removal from office.
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