The attorney general of Ukraine, Andri Kostinhas presented his resignation this Monday after learning that dozens of Ukrainian prosecutors have paid bribes to obtain fake disability certificates to collect aid.
“I thank the president of Ukraine and to the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine. But I think that “it is correct to announce my resignation from the position of attorney general,” Kostin assured in a statement published by the Prosecutor’s Office shortly after the head of State, Volodymyr Zelenskywill hold a national security council held precisely because of this scandal.
Thus, the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office had previously opened an internal investigation against 50 of its prosecutors in the Khmelnytsky region, in the west of the country, who apparently they would have fraudulently acquired disability certificates from the official commission in charge of issuing them. These cases are also part of an alleged larger corruption plot aimed at issuing fake certificates to avoid forced recruitment in the Army in exchange for money.
These alleged massive frauds among prosecutors came to light after the arrest in early October. of the head of the agency in charge of freeing these certificates in Khmelnitsky, Tetiana Krupa, under accusations of illegal enrichment.
During the searches of the official and her son, who worked in the region’s pension fund, they were found, according to the Ukrainian authorities, six million dollars in cash in different currencies and a list of false names and diagnoses so that their beneficiaries are not called up.
64 officials investigated
As announced this Tuesday by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), throughout 2024 this body has identified and canceled a total of 4,106 false certificates. Therefore, a total of 64 commission officials Those in charge of issuing them have already been investigated and 9 of them have been convicted.
The latest of these investigated is the head of the body in charge of certificates in the southern Mikolayiv region, which He was arrested this week with $450,000 in casha collection of jewelry and a Russian passport in her possession.
The Ukrainian president, for his part, condemned in his speech to the nation this Monday the alleged corrupt conduct of officials of these commissions. Thus, he referred to this type of phenomenons like “a real internal enemy.” Likewise, after the meeting of his national Security Council this Tuesday, Zelensky has asked for firm decisions to put an end to these practices.
