Ukraine’s former prosecutor general, Ruslan Kravchenko, gives a press conference in Kyiv in July. Photograph: Thomas Peter/ReutersView image in fullscreenUkraine’s former prosecutor general, Ruslan Kravchenko, gives a press conference in Kyiv in July. Photograph: Thomas Peter/ReutersUkraine’s prosecutor general quits after anti-corruption agents raid his officeRuslan Kravchenko resigns over allegations some of his officials were engaged in large-scale money laundering
Ukraine’s prosecutor general has resigned after investigators used ladders to raid his office in connection with a major corruption scandal that threatens to embarrass Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ruslan Kravchenko quit his post on Monday after allegations that some of his officials were involved in large-scale money laundering. They received cash to protect call centres involved in illegal phone scams, it was claimed.
Kravchenko, who denies wrongdoing, left his job after meeting Zelenskyy. Ukraine’s president also spoke to the heads of Nabu and Sapo, the two anti-corruption agencies that have uncovered a sprawling criminal scheme involving government officials.
Zelenskyy described his conversation with Kravchenko as “fairly long” and said: “I’m sure you understand what we discussed.” The prosecutor’s resignation letter will be sent to Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, he said.
Kravchenko is the latest member of Zelenskyy’s inner circle to be linked to corruption. The allegations involve so-called call centres operating in Ukraine. Employees pose as banks, law enforcement agencies or investment advisers, and persuade victims to transfer funds to accounts or crypto wallets under their control.
Those targeted include Ukrainians, Russians and EU citizens. According to Nabu, a senior official inside the prosecutor general’s office protected the criminal network and helped it to launder its assets.
Each “call centre” paid $7,000 (£5,200) a month in protection money, law enforcement sources told the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper. The bribes ran into millions of dollars, it said, with hundreds of centres believed to employ about 60,000 people across the country.
Nabu investigators raided Kravchenko’s office on Friday. Staff refused to let them in so they used ladders to scale a metal gate. Kravchenko was not at work and had disappeared from his home, which was searched later that evening.
The chief suspect was arrested in the western city of Lviv. Recordings of phone calls published by Nabu suggested he was overseeing repairs at Kravchenko’s home while simultaneously collecting bribes from the fraudulent call centres.
Nabu released images over the weekend of a safe filled with bundles of dollar bills. It said it had uncovered five officials behind the scheme but did not name them. The cash was spent on real estate, jewellery and other valuables, it said, laying out its evidence in a 30-minute video.
Zelenskyy tried to strip Nabu and Sapo of their independence last year, a move he reversed after protests in Kyiv and other cities. There are further claims that the prosecutor’s office subsequently spied on Nabu staff and tried to obstruct their work.
The revelations come at a time when Ukraine is under day-and-night attack from Russian drones and missiles. Three people were killed and 19 injured in overnight strikes on Kyiv that caused huge fires and left smoke hanging over the city.
The onslaught marked the end of a three-day ceasefire in the capital after a visit on Sunday by Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. They visited Moscow on Saturday and met Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy said the pair had brought some “very good, worthwhile ideas” for ending the war but gave no further details. He said he hoped to meet Trump in the next two weeks. Few expect a breakthrough, with the Kremlin claiming on Tuesday that its forces were close to victory.
While Russia escalated its bombing, Ukrainians were talking about corruption investigations, posting numerous comments on social media, the transparency advocate Olena Tregub said.
“Society is shocked and appalled by government officials who are basically behaving as mafia,” she said. “It’s not even corruption. It’s organised crime, protecting illegal call centres that were scamming people, not only in Ukraine but in Europe.”
She said anti-corruption investigations were different from previous ones because Nabu detectives were “very good technically”.
“They are recording people in their homes, in their offices and over the phone,” she said. “They are outsmarting other law enforcement bodies fighting against them, and are able to tape people who think everything is discreet.”
She said the high-profile raids were “changing the culture in Ukraine” and making society less tolerant of ill-gotten wealth.
Zelenskyy’s former business partner fled the country last year after being implicated in a corruption case featuring the state nuclear energy company. Two ministers were fired. The president’s powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, also later resigned after being questioned. Both deny wrongdoing.
Kravchenko rejected the allegations against him on Sunday, calling them “completely unsubstantiated”. A day later he said he did not want his office “to be used as a tool in political confrontation”.
The deputy chair of parliament’s law enforcement committee, Andriy Osadchuk, said the scandal underlined the need to reform the prosecution service and called for key posts to be filled through open competition. Fighting corruption was also vital to Kyiv’s bid for EU membership, he said.
“It will be very difficult for Ukraine to move forward if we do not change the approach to selecting and appointing the prosecutor general and prosecutors at lower levels,” Osadchuk said.
