The Lviv regional prosecutor's office denies that its chief met with the suspect in the “Carthage” case, Serhiy Kropyva...

The Lviv regional prosecutor's office denies that its chief met with the suspect in the “Carthage” case, Serhiy Kropyva (“Kantsler”).

A bit of background: recently in court the deputy head of the Office of the Prosecutor General’s Department of International Cooperation argued that in Lviv, where NABU detained him, he was supposedly on official business.

And when the judge asked with whom exactly, Kropyva said he had a meeting with the head of the Lviv regional prosecutor's office “with the surname Meret” and other staff. When asked for the first name and patronymic of that head, Kropyva answered: “Honestly, I don’t remember. I’ll look now to see what his name is.”

The SAP prosecutor in court immediately disputed that version. According to the investigation, the OPG official was in Lviv on vacation with his common-law wife, Yelyzaveta Ivakhnenko (appearing on NABU recordings as “Muza”).

Now the Lviv regional prosecutor's office itself is also denying it; “Skhemy” sent them an inquiry.

“The head of the regional prosecutor's office was at his workplace and did not hold meetings with Serhiy Kropyva. There were also no telephone conversations or other communications between them during the specified period,” reads the reply from the regional prosecutor's office’s information policy department.

They also claim that the office did not receive information about meetings between Kropyva and other Lviv region prosecutor’s office staff—therefore there is no documentary confirmation of such meetings.

Reminder: 4 September NABU reported a special operation exposing a criminal organization connected with the operation of fraudulent call centers.

The investigation states that it was created and led by one of the heads of structural units of the OPG in mid-2025 year, and its members established a mechanism for systematically receiving bribes in exchange for not obstructing the illegal activities of the so-called call centers.

Later the Office of the Prosecutor General, commenting on the NABU investigation, said it would provide the investigation with “full assistance.”

Two figures in the “Carthage” case—Serhiy Kropyva and Yelyzaveta Ivakhnenko—were placed in custody by the court.

UPD: Operation “Carthage” figure Serhiy Kropyva has not yet been dismissed or suspended from his post as deputy head of the Office of the Prosecutor General’s Department of International Cooperation due to procedural nuances. The spokesperson for the OPG told Ukrayinska Pravda this. According to her, the Office of the Prosecutor General cannot simply issue an order to dismiss a prosecutor solely on the grounds that they have been notified of suspicion or are in custody.