Andriy Kostin, Ukraine’s high state prosecutor, resigns in fallout from draft-dodging scandal

Ukraine’s top prosecutor resigned from office Tuesday amid a growing draft-dodging scandal where hundreds of top government officials are accused of avoiding military service by obtaining fake disability documents.

Ukraine’s military has struggled to meet manpower requirements as it faces a larger Russian invasion force that occupies much of the southern and eastern parts of Ukraine.

Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said he was stepping down to take responsibility for what he called the “shameful acts of abuse” that included members of his own Cabinet department. He said Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy’s plan to crack down on high-ranking draft dodgers was “absolutely correct.”

“Not only should all illegal decisions regarding the granting of disabilities, corresponding pension, and other payments be canceled, but also clear legislative and organizational changes and personal responsibility, including political responsibility” is required, Mr. Kostin said on his Telegram messaging page.

There have been no public allegations that Mr. Kostin was personally involved in the draft-dodging scheme.

Mr. Kostin said he was grateful for the trust placed in him by the Ukrainian president but said resigning from office was the right move given the crisis the country is facing.

He revealed Tuesday that Mr. Zelenskyy had convened a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council “on the obviously immoral situation with the fake disability statuses of government officials.”

“Currently, checks are ongoing at all levels of the state, criminal proceedings are being investigated. Many shameful facts of abuse have been established in the system of prosecutorial bodies of Ukraine,” he noted in his Telegram post.