Ukraine's anti-corruption bureau rejects ex-prosecutor's plot claims

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has dismissed accusations by former prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko that the agency participated in a plan to commit violent acts against him. The bureau stated the claims are a calculated move to gain protection in the country where Kravchenko currently resides.

Kravchenko made the allegations on 28 October. He claimed that the heads of NABU and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Office (SAPO) requested a group be sent to Austria to carry out the attacks. Kravchenko said the orders came from the President's Office.

NABU and SAPO told Interfax-Ukraine and Ukrainska Pravda that they view the statement as an attempt to secure protection abroad. They noted that Kravchenko left Ukraine in a hurry after the two bodies conducted Operation Carthage. The agencies insisted that Kravchenko's assertions regarding their involvement in the events he described are false.

Kravchenko added that two servicemen from the Artan unit of Defence Intelligence were detained in Austria. He said one of the men had previously worked in NABU's surveillance unit. Kravchenko claimed that the unit's commander, Viktor Torkotiuk, was in Austria when his subordinates were arrested.

The former prosecutor general provided no evidence for his claims. He also did not explain why he did not return to Ukraine after his business trip. Kravchenko left the country on the night of 13-14 September. An order he signed required him to spend five days in Paris attending hearings on Ukrainian children at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. His name was not listed among the participants in that discussion.

The scheduled trip ended on 18 September. Mariana Haivovska, spokesperson for the Prosecutor General's Office, said Kravchenko had not returned to work by 21 September. The case has also involved journalists. On 8 October, Ukrainska Pravda reporter Mykhailo Tkach and cameraman Yaroslav Bondarenko were detained in Vienna while working on an assignment to locate Kravchenko.

Austria's Interior Ministry initially suspected Tkach of espionage, but later said the suspicion was not substantiated. The Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office cited eyewitness accounts as the basis for the arrest without explaining how they verified the reliability of those accounts. On 14 October, Tkach said the accounts may have come from people connected to Kravchenko and his circle.