Andrii Demchenko, spokesperson for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, has denied claims that former prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko was allowed to cross the border following a "call from Kyiv".
Source: Demchenko in comments to Ukrinform
Details: According to Ukrainska Pravda sources, Kravchenko, who was prosecutor general at the time, was initially refused permission to enter Poland through the Shehyni checkpoint because of a flag in the database entered by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO). He was then allowed through following a call from Kyiv .
Quote: "Ruslan Kravchenko, who was prosecutor general at the time, crossed the border on the night of 13-14 September 2026. He travelled through the Shehyni checkpoint in Lviv Oblast. During border control, Kravchenko presented documents confirming an official business trip, which entitled him to leave Ukraine."
Details: Demchenko said that during the processing of his documents, a notification instruction issued by an authorised state body, marked with index I (information), was triggered in the database. According to the spokesperson, this meant that the relevant state authorities had to be informed of the person's departure.
"Under the established procedure, the body that had issued the instruction was immediately notified by telephone that this person had left Ukraine. I would also like to point out that this instruction did not prohibit the person from leaving the country; it merely required the initiating body to be informed. The body that issued the instruction did not raise any objections to Kravchenko's departure either. No other instructions restricting this person's departure from Ukraine were issued to the State Border Guard Service by the authorised state bodies," Demchenko explained.
He also said that the authorised state bodies clearly understood the procedures followed by border guards when they received different types of instructions from the State Border Guard Service. These include travel bans, wanted-person notices and requests for additional checks to establish whether there are legal grounds for someone to cross the state border.
"In this case, there was no ban, and the border guards acted accordingly. When restrictions imposed by authorised bodies are entered into the system, the person is not allowed to leave the country," Demchenko stressed.
Background: Kravchenko left Ukraine on the night of 13-14 September. Under an order he had signed himself, he was due to spend five days in Paris , allegedly attending hearings on Ukrainian children under the auspices of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. However, his name did not appear on the list of participants in the discussion. His business trip ended on 18 September. According to Mariana Haivovska, spokesperson for the Prosecutor General's Office, Kravchenko had not returned to work by 21 September.
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