Ukraine's border guards deny a 'call from Kyiv' let ex-prosecutor Kravchenko leave
A spokesman for Ukraine's State Border Guard Service denied that former prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko crossed the border after a call from Kyiv. He said no exit ban existed and only the originator of an alert was informed.
Andriy Demchenko, spokesman for Ukraine's State Border Guard Service, said that former prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko did not cross the border because of a "call from Kyiv". He made the comments to the news agency Ukrinform, responding to claims published by the outlet Ukrainska Pravda (UP) about the circumstances in which Kravchenko left the country.
What UP's sources claimed
According to UP's sources, Kravchenko, then prosecutor general, was initially refused passage to Poland at the Shehyni checkpoint in the Lviv region because his record carried a flag from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP). He was reportedly let through after a call from Kyiv.
The border service's account
Demchenko said Kravchenko crossed the border at night on 14 September via the Shehyni checkpoint. During the checks he presented documents for a business trip, which entitled him to leave Ukraine.
He said an instruction from an authorised state body with the index "I" (information) was triggered in the database. This means the relevant bodies must be informed of the person's departure. Under the set procedure, the originator of the instruction was immediately told by phone. Demchenko stressed that the instruction does not ban departure, and the originator raised no objections. No other instructions restricting Kravchenko's exit had been issued by authorised bodies.
He added that these bodies clearly understand how border guards act on different instructions, which can include an exit ban, a search order or additional checks into whether there are legal grounds to cross the border. If a restriction is entered in the system, the person is not allowed to leave, but in this case there was no ban.
Background
Kravchenko left Ukraine overnight into 14 September. Under an order he signed himself, he was to travel to Paris for five days to take part in hearings under the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Ukrainian children. His name was not on the list of participants. The trip ended on 18 September. Mariana Gayovska, spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General's Office, told UP that he did not return to work on 21 September.
