On 31 October, Andriy Kostin was dismissed from the post of Prosecutor General, which he had held since 2022. His resignation was the result of a scandal involving fictitious disabilities among prosecutors in Khmelnytskyi region. The dismissal decree, number 745, is posted on the website of the President’s Office.
On 22 October, Kostin resigned amid investigations into the illegal receipt of disability status by 50 prosecutors from Khmelnytskyi region. On 29 October, the Verkhovna Rada supported Resolution No. 12153, which agreed to dismiss Kostin from the post of Prosecutor General.
Kostin took over the Prosecutor General’s Office on 28 July 2022, replacing Iryna Venediktova. At the time, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy instructed the new head of the PGO to focus on restoring justice, protecting Ukraine’s interests, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
On 22 October, Zelenskyy held a meeting of the National Security and Defence Council to discuss the investigation of fictitious disabilities among prosecutors. It was decided to liquidate the MSEC by the end of the year, digitalise processes, and conduct inspections and audits of officials’ disability status.
Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said that after the liquidation of the MSEC, the functions of the MSEC would be transferred to cluster and supercluster hospitals in the regions that have the necessary equipment and qualified specialists.
On 29 October, the Verkhovna Rada passed a bill to improve the MSEC. Mykhailo Radutskyi, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on National Health, explained that the law should be signed by the end of the year so that the new conditions could be put into effect in January 2025.
