Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin has announced his resignation amid a scandal involving dozens of officials alleged to have abused their position to receive disability status and avoid military service.
In early October, it emerged that dozens of public prosecutors in the western region of Khmelnytskyi had falsely been awarded disability permits and were receiving special pensions.
Kostin said on Tuesday he was taking responsibility for the scandal and announced his resignation. He called the situation around the false disability diagnoses “clearly amoral”.
“In this situation, I believe it is right to announce my resignation from the position of prosecutor general,” Kostin said.
The announcement followed a meeting of the National Security and Defence Council.
After the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree to dismantle the current system of medical and social commissions responsible for registering individuals as disabled by the end of the year, eliminating a loophole that allowed draft evasion through bribery.
After the scandal erupted earlier this month, Kostin ordered an investigation, which he said had discovered the number of prosecutors in the Khmelnytskyi region with disabilities was 61, and that 50 of them had been registered disabled before the war.
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