This edition, too, is about what Ukrainian newsrooms write about their own country, not about the front. It covers the days from Monday evening, September 21, to Thursday morning.
What happened next
The last edition ended with Kravchenko's dismissal from office on September 15. He was already abroad by then, having left overnight into September 14. Not a single article about him has appeared since in the Slovak and Czech media we monitor. Kravchenko has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing.After his dismissal he remained, by law, an ordinary prosecutor. According to the office's spokeswoman, he did not return to work after his business trip ended on September 18, and on September 21 he was released from the prosecution service as well, at his own request. Kyiv Independent ↗
Ukrainska Pravda then corrected its own earlier report on how he left. According to its sources, it was not in an official car but in a premium Mercedes taxi, via the Shehyni–Medyka crossing into Poland. The Office of the Prosecutor General said that its official vehicles were not used for this trip and that it does not know how Kravchenko left. Ukrajinská pravda ↗
Journalists from the Schemes programme of Radio Free Europe found a townhouse in the Damac Lagoons district, worth about $670,000, in leaked Dubai land registry data obtained through the OCCRP network. The records from 2023 list Kravchenko's then mother-in-law as the buyer; after his divorce, the house passed to a Kyiv restaurateur. She herself says she did not buy the house and did not rule out that someone used her details without her knowledge. Ukrajinská pravda ↗
On Wednesday evening, Ukrainska Pravda published that the address listed for Kravchenko and his wife in the Austrian register belongs to a firm offering registered offices and mail forwarding. According to the outlet, this may have allowed them to conceal where they actually live in Vienna. According to Ukrainska Pravda, the former chairman of the Constitutional Court, Oleksandr Tupytskyi, and the former central bank governor, Kyrylo Shevchenko, also live in the city. We covered the details in a separate article. Ukrajinská pravda ↗
The "Carthage" case goes on
Ivan Tymoshenko, head of the IT department of the Office of the Prosecutor General, whose name is heard on NABU recordings in the case of covering for fraudulent call centres, left his post at his own request as early as September 11, according to Slidstvo.Info. According to the anti-corruption prosecutor's office, he has no procedural status in the case so far. On September 21, Serhii Kutsyi, the driver of Serhii Kropyva, was released from custody on bail of three million hryvnias. Investigators regard Kropyva as the head of the group. Ukrajinská pravda ↗The law that Zelensky signed on September 16 has come into force. Knowing participation in a fraudulent call centre carries up to ten years in prison. Some participants and accomplices can escape criminal liability if, before being notified of suspicion, they themselves report the group's activity to the police and actively help to expose or stop it. Ukrinform ↗
An ex-judge with Russian citizenship
NABU has charged the former deputy chairman of the Supreme Court, Bohdan Lvov, with money laundering. In 2021–2022 he is alleged to have acquired a house with a plot of land, two apartments and four more plots for about 26 million hryvnias, and to have registered them in the name of his subordinate's mother. He was removed from the court as early as 2022, when it emerged that he holds Russian citizenship. Kyiv Independent ↗If there were an election
From September 16 to 21, the company Sociopolis surveyed 1,002 adults by telephone in territory under Kyiv's control; the margin of error is up to 3.1 points. In the first round, Zelensky and Zaluzhnyi, now the ambassador in London, would finish almost level. In the second round, however, Zaluzhnyi would win, 46.1 to 28 percent of all respondents. According to the poll, Zelensky would also be beaten by the head of his own office, Kyrylo Budanov. Interfax-Ukraine ↗Eight parties would enter parliament. The four strongest are close together: a potential party of Zaluzhnyi with 16 percent of decided voters, Zelensky's with 13.9, Poroshenko's European Solidarity with 13.5, and the party of commander Andrii Biletskyi with 13.1 percent. Interfax-Ukraine ↗ More than 75 percent of respondents think that corruption has grown during the war. Fifty-nine percent link it with Zelensky's office and his circle, and almost 55 percent with parliament. Interfax-Ukraine ↗
Money: three billion for ten reforms
On Wednesday, EU ambassadors confirmed that Kyiv has completed ten reforms — from integrity declarations for judges to a new electricity market operator. This opened the way to three billion euros, with final approval by ministers expected on Thursday. Kyiv Independent ↗The day before, Zelensky met Ursula von der Leyen in New York. The conversation was tense, according to Bloomberg. Zelensky drew attention to a $27 billion hole in this year's finances. According to Kyiv Independent, Brussels is becoming increasingly impatient that Kyiv is late with reforms. Kyiv Independent ↗
Kyiv: Municipal Guard versus residents
In the Teremky housing estate, the city is building a backup heating pipeline through a green zone, and residents have protested against it. According to Kyiv City Council member Alina Mykhailova, the city's Municipal Guard physically pushed them back, and one woman reports an injured hand; police are looking into the case. The city says the guard was merely protecting the construction site. Mykhailova (Holos) and Kseniia Semenova (Servant of the People) are now proposing to disband the guard for the duration of martial law. Interfax-Ukraine ↗According to Mykhailova, the guard has turned into an "instrument of force for the city authorities and Vitalii Klitschko personally." Ukrajinská pravda ↗
What of this concerns us
Hungary has rejected the Carpathian Eight, in which Kyiv also counts Slovakia, and Slovak media wrote about it in detail. Kyiv Post adds that Prime Minister Péter Magyar compared being included without consent to being signed up for a village football team and then having to bring the ball himself. Kyiv Post ↗Magyar also declared that as long as Tisza governs, there will be no Ukrainian oil storage in Hungary. Naftogaz, however, has signed only a memorandum with MOL on storage of petroleum products near the border, and MOL says that preparation could take years. Ukrajinská pravda ↗ A draft law on minorities, which Budapest demands as a condition for the accession process, is ready and supported by both Brussels and Budapest, according to three EU officials. It only remains to submit it in the Verkhovna Rada. Kyiv Independent ↗
Czech company MND, part of Karel Komárek's KKCG group, signed a memorandum with Naftogaz on possible entry into three production sharing agreements held by the state extraction company Ukrgasvydobuvannia. Entry will be decided by a tender, and initial investments could start at $60 million. Interfax-Ukraine ↗
*This roundup is based on Ukrainian media — Ukrainska Pravda, Kyiv Independent, Kyiv Post, Interfax-Ukraine and Ukrinform. Data from Ukrainian authorities and poll results are presented as their claims, not as verified facts. Photo: the Verkhovna Rada building in Kyiv, by Misha Reme, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.*
