Refusal of State Protection, Official Car, and Night Border Crossing: How Kravchenko Left Ukraine After the Suspicion Against Kryvonos

Refusal of State Protection, Official Car, and Night Border Crossing: How Kravchenko Left Ukraine After the Suspicion Against Kryvonos

Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko entered information about suspicion of NABU Director Semen Kryvonos into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations on 23:19 13 September, and roughly three hours later crossed the border in an official vehicle through the Shehyni 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 to Kravchenko’s dismissal, after which the president signed the corresponding decree.

Kravchenko submitted a statement temporarily refusing personal state protection at one o’clock in the morning on 14 September — roughly two hours after entering information about suspicion of Kryvonos. As Ukrainska Pravda writes, this may indicate that the prosecutor general already then understood he would leave Ukraine not as part of an ordinary official trip.

At 2:30 at night Kravchenko crossed the border through Shehyni in an official vehicle. Kravchenko himself that same morning confirmed being 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 went to Romania.

Information about Kravchenko’s possible departure abroad, according to the journalists’ interlocutors among the authorities and law enforcement, was circulating several days before his departure.

Sources for the publication assert 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 suspicion against himself.

The materials collected with the involvement of the SBU Department for the Protection of National Statehood were fully ready for use, NABU and SAP leaders claimed. At the same time, Ukrainska Pravda’s sources among law enforcement note that Kravchenko systematically held meetings and issued directives regarding preparation of the strike against the anti-corruption bloc.

Ukrainska Pravda’s interlocutors 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 David Arakhamia, who is called the “director of parliament.” According to Ukrainska Pravda’s sources, Kravchenko believed Arakhamia feared a possible NABU and SAP investigation into paying deputies extra salaries in envelopes and sought to preserve influence over those bodies.

The second version concerns a possible Operation “Emperor.” It is noted that Kravchenko could have received from law enforcement information about a prepared investigation into his possible involvement in protecting call centers, which could have resulted in a notification of suspicion and detention.

The third version relates to the appearance of a special “beacon” 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 SAP in case Kravchenko attempted to cross the border.

Interlocutors for Ukrainska Pravda claim that on 13 September Arakhamia tried to find out why such a mark was placed regarding Kravchenko and whether it meant possible detention of the prosecutor general during departure from Ukraine.

SAP head Oleksandr Klymenko said at a briefing on 14 September that Kravchenko might have been aided 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 explicitly spoke of political influence on his work. This is an important detail, given that before that he signed the suspicion against NABU Director Semen Kryvonos and subsequently left the country.

It cannot be ruled out that the attack on NABU and SAP was for Kravchenko a way to later obtain political asylum in Europe.

Against this backdrop, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s reaction 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 has seen all the reasons. If he considers this political pressure, let him call it that."

"Could such communication from the president indicate that, as a reward for carrying out at least last year’s attack on NABU and SAP, the authorities are helping the prosecutor general to obtain the same security guarantees from NABU and SAP? Could the head of state’s quote — 'If he considers this political pressure, let him call it that' — be useful to a new political VIP refugee?" — Ukrainska Pravda asks.

Both President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly and David Arakhamia privately immediately disassociated themselves from 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 with votes supported giving consent to his dismissal. That same day Zelenskyy signed the decree dismissing Kravchenko from the position of prosecutor general.

Also on 14 September at 17:26 Deputy Prosecutor General Maksym Krym marked the information about suspicion of Kryvonos in the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations as canceled and entered by mistake.

After leaving Ukraine Kravchenko stated he was on an official business trip. However, after his dismissal as prosecutor general on 15 September the question arose about his further status abroad: can a person continue to be on a business trip if the position from which they were sent has already ended.

In particular, Kravchenko personally arranged a 5-day business trip from 13 September to Paris to take part in hearings of the PACE parliamentary network concerning Ukrainian children. According to the media, the document states that expenses for Kravchenko’s stay abroad are covered by the event organizer.

Office of the Prosecutor General communications director Maryana Haivska previously said she "knows nothing" about this trip. Meanwhile, the Anti-Corruption Action Center stated that the meeting on Ukrainian children in Paris will take place only on 16 September, and the prosecutor general’s speech at this event is not planned at all.

Will Zelenskyy seek another loyal figure or agree to change the very principle of appointing the prosecutor general? Especially after NABU and SAP’s investigation showed what concentration of vast powers and hand-picked personnel policy in the Office of the Prosecutor General can lead to.