Andriy Kostin resigns after a corruption scheme involving false disability diagnoses for exemptions from mandatory military service was uncovered.
Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin announced his resignation amid a scandal involving dozens of officials who allegedly abused their position to receive disabled status and avoid military service.
In early October, it emerged that dozens of prosecutors in the western Khmelnytskyi region had falsely obtained disability permits and were receiving special pensions.
Kostin said Tuesday that he took responsibility for the scandal and announced his resignation. He called the situation around false disability diagnoses “clearly amoral.”
“In this situation, I believe it is correct to announce my resignation from the position of attorney general,” Kostin said.
The announcement came after a meeting of the National Defense and Security Council.
After the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree to dismantle the current system of medical and social commissions responsible for registering people as disabled by the end of the year, closing a loophole that allowed evasion of conscription. through bribes.
'Hundreds' of cases
After the scandal broke earlier this month, Kostin ordered an investigation that he said had found that the number of disabled prosecutors in the Khmelnytskyi region was 61, and that 50 of them had been registered as disabled before the war.
“It is very important to determine why they were granted disability status, because the proportion of such employees in the Khmelnitsky region is very high,” he said.
The chief prosecutor's resignation must still be approved by parliament, where Zelenskyy's party has a majority. Following the president's public call for accountability, parliament is widely expected to back him.
In his afternoon address, Zelenskyy told the nation that such corruption extended far beyond prosecutors.
“There are hundreds of cases of obviously unjustified disabilities among customs, tax, pension fund and local administration officials,” he said.
“All of this must be addressed thoroughly and promptly,” he said. The entire process must be digitized, he added, stating that currently “people who have received a real disability, especially in combat, are often unable to obtain proper status and fair payments.”
The Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) had earlier issued a statement saying that 64 officials of the Medical and Social Expert Commissions had been notified that they were being investigated for illegally issuing disability certificates.
“Nine other people have already been sentenced,” the SBU said in its statement, adding that 4,106 disability certificates “were annulled.”
Mobilization in Ukraine is a highly contentious and controversial issue that has polarized society after a large-scale military recruitment drive earlier this year to bolster Ukrainian forces fighting the Russian invasion. Since the president signed a renewed mobilization law in April 2024, men between the ages of 25 and 60 are now eligible. Previously, the range was 27 to 60.
Soldiers have reported difficult conditions, including relentless days of intense unaided fire due to a lack of reinforcements. Frontline troops have shared with the media that they have been moving from one battle to another with minimal rest.
Prosecutions for desertion from Ukraine's military are believed to have already reached at least 30,000 this year. This figure is several times higher than that of 2022, the year the war began when citizens and foreigners voluntarily joined the army.
