Ukraine's parliament votes to dismiss prosecutor general

Ukraine's parliament voted Tuesday to dismiss Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, with 317 lawmakers supporting his removal.

The vote followed Kravchenko's resignation, submitted on Sept. 7 amid an investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) into alleged corruption involving officials at the Prosecutor General's Office.

On Sept. 5, NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) said they had uncovered an alleged criminal organization led by a department head at the Prosecutor General's Office. Its members are suspected of taking bribes from fraudulent call centers and laundering money.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had urged parliament to approve Kravchenko's dismissal without delay, saying Monday that the prosecutor general had only one path left – to leave office.

The parliamentary Law Enforcement Committee unanimously recommended Kravchenko's dismissal Monday.

The vote came a day after Kravchenko accused NABU Director Semen Kryvonos of forging official documents and said he had signed a notice of suspicion against him.

NABU rejected the allegation, saying no such notice had been officially served on Kryvonos and describing Kravchenko's statement as part of what it called a systematic attack on Ukraine's independent anti-corruption bodies.

Kravchenko has also alleged that a recent operation at the Prosecutor General's Office was aimed at obtaining access to criminal case materials concerning NABU and SAPO officials. NABU denied taking any such materials.

His removal comes amid an escalating institutional dispute between the Prosecutor General’s Office and Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies.