Fired Ukraine AG Kravchenko Fled Country Hours After NABU Chief Was Handed Suspicion Notice

Ruslan Kravchenko, who was dismissed as Ukraine's Attorney General on September 15 by presidential decree, refused his state personal protection detail about two hours after information about the suspicion filed against NABU Director Semen Kryvonos was entered into Ukraine's Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

The Timeline of Departure

According to Ukrainska Pravda's sources, Kravchenko crossed the border at the Shehyni checkpoint at 2:30 AM — approximately three hours after the suspicion notice was entered and one and a half hours after he formally declined his state protection. His wife had crossed the border into Moldova a day earlier, on September 12, and subsequently proceeded to neighbouring Romania.

Information that Kravchenko was planning to leave Ukraine had reportedly been circulating in the highest government circles several days before his actual departure, sources told the publication.

Context: Kravchenko's Fall

The former attorney general had been under fire following a National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) investigation into alleged protection rackets involving call centres. On September 14, Kravchenko claimed he had signed a suspicion notice against NABU director Kryvonos, accusing NABU and SAPO of seizing case materials during Operation Carthage to obstruct proceedings against their own personnel.

On September 7, Kravchenko had submitted a resignation letter. President Volodymyr Zelensky subsequently signed a presidential decree dismissing him on September 15, following a supporting vote in the Verkhovna Rada. The Ukrainian parliament's law-enforcement committee had endorsed the president's submission.