Ukraine, war. A surge of disabled prosecutors – Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin resigned

Andriy Kostin resigned after Tuesday's meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, chaired by the president Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Many shameful facts of abuse have been revealed in the prosecutor's system in Ukraine,” Kostin said in a written statement, justifying his decision. He wrote about bearing “personal and political responsibility” in this situation, and confirmed that “inspections are currently underway at all levels.” This concerns decisions regarding disability status, pensions and other benefits used by prosecutors.

In early October, the Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigation reported that confiscated the equivalent of almost five million euros in cash from an official suspected of helping people escape from military mobilization.

This was the head of the medical commission of the Khmelnytsky region, Tatiana Krupa, responsible for assessing the suitability of men for military service. In the clerk's office, investigators discovered, among other things, false disability documents and fictitious medical diagnoses.

On October 16, Yuriy Butusov, a well-known Ukrainian journalist and editor-in-chief of the website Censor.net, revealed a list containing the names of 50 prosecutors from the Khmelnytsky Oblast who had the status of persons with disabilities of the 2nd group. “This criminal drama shocks with the depth of lawlessness and impunity of the authorities,” wrote Butusov.

Khmelnytsky District Prosecutor Oleksiy Olijnyk, who also had a disability certificate, resigned from his position.

As Ukrainian investigative journalists found, prosecutors also had fictitious disability certificates in other districts of the country, including: Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk.

President Ukraine may dismiss the Prosecutor General with the consent of the Verkhovna Rada. The Ukrainian section of the BBC reported that a parliamentary session to consider this issue could be held next week.