NABU Director Semen Kryvonos has reported an unprecedented information attack on the anti-corruption bodies. Its aim is to politicise NABU and the SAPO and to discredit the anti-corruption agencies.
Back in July 2025, Ruslan Kravchenko and his first deputy were carrying out an attack on NABU and the SAPO: they signed notices of suspicion against detectives and authorised investigative actions. NABU Director Semen Kryvonos said this at a briefing on 14 September.
He added that before information was made public about exposing a criminal group in the Prosecutor General’s Office, the anti-corruption bodies had anticipated a new attack. However, the teams at NABU and the SAPO continue to carry out their duties and expose crimes.
“Today we saw this bizarre invention, an information genre — ‘Telegram notices of suspicion’. Personally, I have not seen a paper document notifying me of suspicion. No one has served it on me. No one has brought it to NABU or the SAPO,” he said.
Kryvonos said they would build their defence strategy after they receive the case materials. He added that from the published materials it is clear that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was again involved.
The head of the SAPO commented on Kravchenko’s statement that a person close to him had been served with a notice of suspicion.
“Members of my family have not received any notices of suspicion. If such a close person is found — let them say so,” he said.
Klymenko added that whether this attack was coordinated or was Ruslan Kravchenko’s personal decision would become clear in due course.
Timeline of Events
On 5 September, NABU and the SAPO reported that they had uncovered a criminal organisation in the Prosecutor General’s Office that was covering up illegal call centres in exchange for improper remuneration and then laundering the money. Notices of suspicion were announced for five people, including the head of one of the Prosecutor General’s Office departments, Serhii Kropyva. According to the published materials, he communicated closely with Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko and travelled with him to Madrid.
In conversations recorded by detectives, Kropyva mentioned some “boss” and said he would like to build an empire like his. Ruslan Kravchenko himself had not received a notice of suspicion at the time the investigation was made public. He denied involvement in the case and, at a meeting with journalists, said he had no intention of resigning. However, on 7 September he said he had submitted a resignation letter. This happened after a meeting with the President.
The Verkhovna Rada did not hold plenary sittings last week, so Kravchenko’s resignation letter remained unconsidered. On 14 September at around 8am, the public pages of the Prosecutor General’s Office and Ruslan Kravchenko published his video address, in which he said he had signed a notice of suspicion for NABU Director Semen Kryvonos and for a person close to the head of the SAPO. The Prosecutor General also accused the anti-corruption bodies of stealing investigation materials in cases against their employees.
It emerged that the video was published when Ruslan Kravchenko was already abroad. According to Ukrainska Pravda, he left the country overnight today under the pretext of a business trip. Kravchenko himself confirmed that he had left.
The Prosecutor General also published the text of the notice of suspicion against Kryvonos. It refers to the period 2009 and 2014. The first episode concerns the alleged falsification of the birth certificate of a boy adopted by Kryvonos. The notice states that Kryvonos misled the boy’s mother by saying he needed to formalise paternity for a foreign employer, whereas in fact he used this in order to seek amnesty in a vote-buying case.
Information about this was actively circulated last year, when there was an attempt to subordinate NABU and the SAPO to the Prosecutor General.
The second episode concerns the period when Semen Kryvonos worked at the Obukhiv City and District Department of Justice. It is alleged that he knew that the head of the Starobezradychi village council, Horbachenko P. M., demanded a bribe from citizen Ruzmatov V. for granting him ownership of a 0.25-hectare land plot for the construction and maintenance of a residential house. Here, Kryvonos is accused of requesting an improper benefit for himself and third parties from an official holding a responsible position, on an especially large scale, as well as organising the preparation and issuance by an appraiser of a knowingly forged official document.
On the evening of 14 September, the President suspended Ruslan Kravchenko.
NABU’s Position
The Bureau denied stealing documents during searches at the Prosecutor General’s Office premises. It said that as of the morning, Semen Kryvonos had not received any notices of suspicion (Kravchenko said he had sent it by post). They described all the statements as a continuation of pressure on the Bureau, which intensified in July last year precisely with attempts to subordinate NABU and the SAPO to the Prosecutor General.
“All claims regarding the alleged seizure by NABU of such proceedings do not correspond to reality. Therefore, the statements by the Prosecutor General, who recently resigned, are currently public in nature rather than procedural. We also emphasise separately that NABU and the SAPO have never offered or demanded any ‘immunity’ for anyone — neither for their own employees nor for other individuals,” the statement said.