Ukraine: prosecutor general resigns as his office is suspected of shielding scam call centres

In Kyiv they call it a “political” resignation. On 7 September 2026, Ukraine's prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko announced he was stepping down, days after the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) unveiled operation “Carthage”. The target: an alleged criminal organisation set up in mid-2025 inside the Office of the Prosecutor General itself, suspected of protecting fraudulent call centres in exchange for bribes. Kravchenko has not been charged and denies any involvement. Everyone named is presumed innocent.

“This is a political decision. And I made it consciously,” Kravchenko said, adding that he did not want the office of prosecutor general to become “an instrument of political confrontation”. He insisted he had “never instructed anyone” to help illegal call centres operate. Within a week, that defence would take a markedly more aggressive turn.

Operation “Carthage”: the prosecutors on tape

According to NABU and SAPO, the scheme was simple: regular bribes paid so that scam call centres targeting Ukrainians and foreigners alike could work undisturbed. The money was then allegedly laundered through property purchases and bank accounts. Five alleged members have been identified, according to the Kyiv Independent.

The central figure is Serhii Kropyva, deputy head of the international cooperation department at the Prosecutor General's Office, nicknamed “the Chancellor” in NABU recordings quoted by the Kyiv Post. He is suspected of laundering more than 89 million hryvnias (about $2 million). The High Anti-Corruption Court remanded him in custody until 2 November, with bail set at 120 million hryvnias (about $2.7 million). Another suspect, Yelyzaveta Ivakhnenko, had bail set at 20 million hryvnias.

The tapes credit Kropyva with a life philosophy not obviously found in the prosecutors' code of ethics: “if you're going to steal, steal a million”, plus a wish to “push around all the law enforcement officers and do whatever I want”. They reportedly also mention a “boss” referred to by the patronymic “Andriiovych” who protected the group, a detail matching Ruslan Andriiovych Kravchenko. The “Chancellor” allegedly even looked for a residence for that boss in Kozyn, an upmarket village near Kyiv, according to the Kyiv Post. None of this has led to charges against the former prosecutor general.

The big business of fake bank staff

Scam call centres are an industry in their own right in Ukraine. The Kyiv Post puts their number at 550 to 1,000, with 94 shut down in a single National Police operation. A young workforce (often 18 to 25), high turnover, $1,500 to $3,000 a month for the rank and file: the model runs on rigged calls aimed largely at pensioners and vulnerable people, in Ukraine and abroad.

For such an economy to thrive you need phone lines, scripts… and, investigators say, a little judicial peace and quiet. That is exactly what the alleged group is suspected of selling from inside the very institution meant to prosecute the fraudsters.

From resignation to counter-attack

Resigning did not end the affair; it inflamed it. On 14 September, Kravchenko announced he had signed notices of suspicion against NABU director Semen Kryvonos, accused of forgery and a “fictitious adoption” to escape liability, and levelled further accusations at people linked to SAPO. NABU and SAPO called it “a continuation of the systematic attack” on their independence. The Prosecutor General's Office itself said the moves had “no legal grounds”, and Kryvonos said he had never been formally served.

The same day, Volodymyr Zelensky suspended Kravchenko by decree and asked the Verkhovna Rada to remove him. On 15 September, parliament voted him out by 317 votes, with none against. On 17 September, the president appointed Anton Kovalskyi, until then head of the Khmelnytskyi regional prosecutor's office, as acting prosecutor general. Deputy Prosecutor General Mariia Vdovychenko had also resigned in the wake of 7 September.

Meanwhile, Kravchenko had left Ukraine, officially on a foreign business trip to “inform international partners”. Organisers of a Paris conference he said he would attend denied he was taking part, and Ukrainska Pravda, as reported by Censor.net, says it located him in Vienna in late September. As for Kropyva, the NGO AntAC noted that two weeks after the operation he had still not been formally suspended or dismissed, contrary to what his former boss had announced.

A prosecutor's office with a curse

Approved by the Rada on 17 June 2025, formerly head of the Kyiv regional military administration and then of the State Tax Service, Kravchenko was meant to turn the page on his predecessor Andriy Kostin, who left after the scandal of fake disability certificates obtained by hundreds of prosecutors. A calendar coincidence: the alleged “Carthage” organisation was reportedly formed in the same period, mid-2025. And it was in July 2025 that the authorities tried to place NABU and SAPO under the prosecutor general's thumb, before backing down in the face of street protests and Brussels.

For the European Union this is no side issue: the European Commission has stressed that protecting the anti-corruption agencies and reforming the prosecutor general's office remain conditions of the accession process. The case adds to the other NABU files rattling Kyiv, from the “Midas” energy probe to suspicions surrounding former insiders. The “Carthage” investigation continues; no trial has taken place.

Magouilles & Compagnie verdict

Magouille or calomnie? There are wiretaps, nine-figure bail, a lightning resignation and a legal counter-attack the prosecutor's office itself calls groundless; there is no trial and no conviction. Holding verdict: the prosecutors were investigating phone scams. Very closely, it seems.