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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The prosecutor general himself called the trip a business trip.
Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko entered information about a suspicion against NABU Director Semen Kryvonos into the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations 23:19 13 September, and approximately three hours later crossed the border in an official vehicle at the Shegyni checkpoint.
According to sources for Ukrainska Pravda, before leaving Kravchenko refused personal state protection, and his wife left Ukraine a day earlier. Already on 15 September the Verkhovna Rada gave consent for Kravchenko’s dismissal, after which the president signed the corresponding decree.
Kravchenko submitted a statement temporarily refusing personal state protection in the first hour of the night on 14 September — roughly two hours after entering the suspicion against Kryvonos. As Ukrainska Pravda writes, this may indicate that the prosecutor general already then understood he would be leaving Ukraine not as part of an ordinary official business trip.
At 2:30 at night Kravchenko crossed the border through Shegyni in an official car. Kravchenko himself that same morning confirmed he was abroad and stated he was on an official business trip to France, which was supposed to last five days.
Kravchenko’s wife left Ukraine on 12 September via the border with Moldova, after which, according to Ukrainska Pravda, she headed to Romania.
Information about Kravchenko’s possible departure abroad, according to interlocutors of journalists among the authorities and law enforcement, circulated several days before his departure.
Sources for the outlet claim that after the start of Operation Carthage Kravchenko was primarily interested in whether he would receive personal guarantees of immunity. He never managed to learn about the preparation of a suspicion against himself.
The materials compiled with the participation of the SBU’s Department for the Protection of National Statehood were fully ready for use, leaders of NABU and the SAP claimed. At the same time, Ukrainska Pravda’s sources among law enforcement note that Kravchenko systematically held meetings and issued instructions to prepare a strike against the anti-corruption unit.
Interlocutors of Ukrainska Pravda in political and law-enforcement circles named three possible reasons that could have influenced Kravchenko’s decision to leave Ukraine on the night of 14 September.
The first version is connected to Servant of the People faction head Davyd Arakhamia, who is called the “parliament’s director.” According to Ukrainska Pravda’s sources, Kravchenko believed Arakhamia feared a possible NABU and SAP investigation into additional envelope payments to deputies’ salaries and sought to preserve influence over these bodies.
The second version concerns a possible Operation Emperor. It is noted that Kravchenko may have received information from law enforcement about preparation of an investigation into his possible involvement in providing protection for call centers, which could have ended with a notice of suspicion and arrest.
The third version concerns the appearance of a special “mayachok” about Kravchenko in the border guards’ database. The official learned on 13 September that he had come under special control at the border. Such a mark could have meant the need to notify NABU and the SAP in case Kravchenko attempted to cross the border.
Ukrainska Pravda’s interlocutors assert that on 13 September Arakhamia tried to find out why such a mark had been set for Kravchenko and whether it meant the prosecutor general could be detained while leaving Ukraine.
SAP head Oleksandr Klymenko said at a briefing on 14 September that Kravchenko may have been assisted by his close friend, lawyer Dmytro Borzykh, who is a suspect in NABU and SAP’s “lawyers-hackers” case.
After leaving Ukraine Kravchenko published a video in which he directly spoke of political influence on his work. This is an important detail, considering that before this he had signed a suspicion against NABU Director Semen Kryvonos and then left the country.
It cannot be ruled out that the attack on NABU and the SAP was Kravchenko’s way of trying to obtain political asylum in Europe in the future.
In this context the reaction of President Volodymyr Zelensky sounds particularly interesting. After Kravchenko’s video he said: “This prosecutor general has only one path: dismissal from office. That is exactly what I told him. Ukraine saw all the reasons. If he considers this political pressure, let him call it that.”
“Could such communication from the president indicate that, as a thank-you for at least last year’s attack on NABU and the SAP, the authorities are helping the prosecutor general obtain the same security guarantees from NABU and the SAP? Could the president’s quote — ‘If he considers this political pressure, let him call it that’ — prove useful to the new political VIP refugee?” Ukrainska Pravda asks.
Both publicly by President Volodymyr Zelensky and privately by Davyd Arakhamia, they immediately disavowed Ruslan Kravchenko’s actions.
On 14 September the president signed the corresponding decree and the Verkhovna Rada began the procedure to dismiss the prosecutor general. On 15 September the parliament 317 voted to grant consent for his dismissal. That same day Zelensky signed the decree dismissing Kravchenko from the post of prosecutor general.
Also on 14 September at 17:26 Deputy Prosecutor General Maksym Krym marked the information about a suspicion against Kryvonos in the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations as canceled and entered by mistake.
After leaving Ukraine Kravchenko stated he was on an official business trip. However, after his dismissal from the post of prosecutor general on 15 September the question arose about his continued status abroad: can a person remain on a business trip if the position from which they were sent has already ended?
In particular, Kravchenko independently arranged a 5-day business trip starting on 13 September to Paris, to participate in hearings of the PACE parliamentary network concerning Ukrainian children. According to media, the document states that expenses for Kravchenko’s stay abroad are covered by the event organizer.
Office of the Prosecutor General communications head Maryana Haivska previously said she “knows nothing” about this trip. Meanwhile, the Anti-Corruption Action Center said that the meeting on Ukrainian children in Paris will take place only on 16 September, and the prosecutor general’s speech at that event is not planned at all.
Will Zelensky look for another loyal figure or agree to change the very principle of appointing the prosecutor general? Especially after the NABU and SAP investigation showed what concentration of enormous powers and a hands-on personnel policy in the Office of the Prosecutor General can lead to.
In the article “A test for Zelensky. Will he change the rules for appointing the prosecutor general after Kravchenko’s resignation,” Olena Shcherban, head of the legal department at the Anti-Corruption Action Center, writes about why the next appointment of a prosecutor general will be a test for Zelensky.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item ""Маячок" на кордоні, відмова від охорони й три приховані мотиви: як і чому Кравченко тікав з України". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ZN.ua.
