Ukraine’s EU Membership Path Faces New Risk as Outgoing Prosecutor General Targets NABU

Ukraine’s outgoing prosecutor general has escalated his confrontation with independent anti-corruption investigators while reforms intended to prevent political interference in their work remain unfinished, putting Kyiv’s EU accession commitments under renewed scrutiny.On Monday, Sept. 14, Ruslan Kravchenko announced that he had signed a notice of suspicion against National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Director Semen Kryvonos. President Volodymyr Zelensky subsequently urged parliament to approve Kravchenko’s dismissal without delay.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.Kravchenko had submitted his resignation a week earlier⁠, after an investigation into an alleged criminal organization within the Prosecutor General’s Office. However, his resignation did not immediately terminate his powers: parliamentary approval is required.For Mykhailo Zhernakov, executive director of the DEJURE Foundation, the central question is how Ukraine selects his replacement.Zhernakov told Kyiv Post that an open competition involving international experts was necessary to reduce political influence over the appointment. Replacing one prosecutor general without changing the selection procedure would leave the underlying problem intact, he argued.A resignation followed by a confrontationKravchenko accused Kryvonos of falsifying official documents to obtain an improper benefit. NABU said its director had not received a notice of suspicion and rejected the allegations as fabricated. Other Topics of Interest Why Boris Johnson? Putin’s Long-Running Grudge in Focus After Train Strike From wartime Kyiv to Putin’s reported missile threat, Johnson has become one of Moscow’s most frequently targeted Western political figures. NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) described the move as a continuation of a systematic attack on their independence.The confrontation followed operation “Carthage,” an investigation into officials allegedly accepting bribes to protect fraudulent call centers and laundering their proceeds.Ukrainska Pravda identified the suspected organizer as Serhii Kropyva, a deputy head of the Prosecutor General’s Office’s International Legal Cooperation Department. Investigators searched premises used by Kravchenko and other senior officials.Kravchenko denied involvement. He had not been named as a suspect when he submitted his resignation.Ukrainska Pravda also reportedly learned from sources that Kravchenko left Ukraine overnight on Monday, Sept. 14. He described the journey as an official business trip.The dispute recalls July 2025, when parliament passed legislation subordinating NABU and SAPO to the prosecutor general. Zelensky signed it before protests and international pressure prompted a reversal.The reversal restored the agencies’ independence but left other controversial provisions intact, including rules allowing prosecutors to be appointed or transferred without competition during martial law.The EU commitments Ukraine has not deliveredZhernakov told Kyiv Post that prosecutorial and judicial selection reforms form part of the Kachka-Kos plan, a package of 10 priority commitments agreed with Brussels in December 2025.Named after then-Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kachka and EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos, the package addresses political interference in justice, anti-corruption safeguards, and judicial appointments.It is not the complete accession roadmap. Rather, it is a shorter list of urgent reforms drawn from Ukraine’s broader obligations, with an implementation deadline being the end of 2026.The independent Membership Check coalition awarded implementation 15 points out of 100 in June⁠. Much of the progress consisted of preparatory work rather than completed reforms. The figure is a mid-year assessment, not a new September measurement.Zhernakov cited that limited progress as a warning that institutional scandals and unfulfilled commitments could slow accession negotiations.The plan explicitly requires changes to the selection and dismissal of the prosecutor general, restored competitions for other prosecutorial appointments, and continued international participation in judicial selection.The European Commission’s 2025 report on Ukraine⁠ had already described the prosecutor general’s position as politicized and called for a more transparent, merit-based appointment process.Two bills address separate problemsUnder the existing procedure, the president nominates the prosecutor general and parliament approves the appointment. There is no mandatory open competition.Bill No. 15343⁠ proposes a competition overseen by the High Council of Justice, with international experts holding a decisive vote on the selection commission. It also proposes safeguards against politically motivated dismissal.Zhernakov told Kyiv Post that international participation remains important for judicial governance bodies, including the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ), which selects and evaluates judges, and the High Council of Justice (HCJ), which handles appointments and discipline.Their selection procedures differ. The mandate of international experts on the HQCJ selection commission expired on June 1, 2025. That did not simultaneously end international participation in the separate Ethics Council process for selecting HCJ members.Bill No. 13382⁠ would preserve three international experts and their decisive vote in HQCJ selection until June 2028. DEJURE’s July assessment said the proposal remained in parliamentary committee more than a year after registration.Zhernakov called for legislation restoring those safeguards, arguing that international experts had helped Ukraine conduct credible selections for key institutions.Why this affects accessionAs Kyiv Post explained in “EU Clusters for Dummies: Where Ukraine Stands,”⁠ judicial independence and anti-corruption reforms belong to the Fundamentals cluster of accession negotiations. Progress there determines the pace of the wider process.An investigation reaching senior officials can demonstrate that anti-corruption institutions work. Attempts to obstruct or retaliate against investigators raise a different question: whether those institutions can operate independently when politically connected figures come under scrutiny.Kravchenko’s resignation does not itself jeopardize accession. The risk effectively lies in recurring attacks on independent institutions and the failure to enact safeguards Ukraine has already promised Brussels.The next appointment will show whether Kyiv changes the procedure or merely the person. Lesia DubenkoLesia Dubenko is a Ukrainian political scientist and analyst. A graduate of Lund University (MSc in European Affairs), she covers issues relating to international affairs, migration, and disinformation.