Ukraine’s outgoing prosecutor general, Ruslan Kravchenko, said on Monday he had approved criminal charges against the head of the country’s main anti-corruption agency, escalating a dispute between the prosecutor’s office and institutions tasked with investigating corruption.

Kravchenko, who submitted his resignation last week, said he suspected Semen Kryvonos, director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), of falsifying official documents to obtain an especially large illicit benefit and of arranging a sham adoption to create grounds for avoiding legal responsibility.

He also said he had approved charges against an unnamed person close to Oleksandr Klymenko, head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).

NABU said Kryvonos had not been formally charged as of Monday and that Kravchenko’s allegations remained public statements rather than formal procedural actions.

“NABU and SAPO view these actions as a continuation of the systematic attack on the independence of anti-corruption agencies,” the bureau said in a statement.

The confrontation comes as Kravchenko faces scrutiny over a separate NABU investigation into an alleged criminal network accused of protecting scam call centres and laundering millions of hryvnias.

Kravchenko has denied involvement in the alleged scheme, which investigators have linked to senior officials in the Prosecutor General’s Office, including Serhii Kropyva.

NABU recordings cited in the investigation allegedly refer to a senior figure known as the “boss” who was protecting the network. Investigators have indicated that the description corresponds to Kravchenko, based partly on his patronymic and his previous position as head of Ukraine’s State Tax Service.

Kropyva has also been described by an anti-corruption prosecutor as a close associate of Kravchenko during court proceedings.

According to the recordings, Kropyva allegedly arranged repair work at Kravchenko’s house in Kozyn, an affluent residential area south of Kyiv. Kravchenko has said he selected the property last winter and had lived there since May.

Dispute with Zelenskiy

Kravchenko's resignation came after the investigation into the alleged call-centre protection network. He has rejected accusations of wrongdoing.

Ukrainska Pravda, citing sources, reported that Kravchenko left Ukraine in a government vehicle early on Monday. Kravchenko later said he was travelling abroad on official business to brief partners about what he described as the state of Ukraine’s anti-corruption system and signs of “uncontrolled influence” within the agencies.

Kravchenko also said President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had previously sought to prevent him from approving charges against the NABU director. He called for the resignation of both Kryvonos and Klymenko.

Zelenskiy responded by calling for parliament to dismiss Kravchenko as prosecutor general.

“This prosecutor general has only one path: dismissal from office. That is exactly what I told him,” Zelenskiy said in a social media post.

“If he considers this political pressure, then let him call it that,” he added.

Ukraine's parliament is due to vote on Kravchenko's dismissal on Tuesday.

The dispute follows a separate confrontation this year over the independence of NABU and SAPO. An attempt to curb the agencies’ independence triggered protests across Ukraine and criticism from international partners before the measures were reversed.

The latest clash has renewed scrutiny of Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions, which play a central role in the country’s efforts to strengthen governance and advance its bid for European Union membership. (ILKHA)