Ukraine's top prosecutor said he had submitted his resignation as anti-corruption investigators homed in on an embezzlement scheme connected to a top official in the prosecutor's office.
Ruslan Kravchenko said his resignation was a political decision, hinting that he was forced to make the move. Earlier, he had said publicly he would not leave his job.
"I made it consciously. I do not want the position of Prosecutor General to be used as a tool for political confrontation. My position regarding the accusations remains unchanged," he wrote on Telegram on September 7.
The move is the latest in a swirl of corruption allegations and investigations that have cast a pall over President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government.
A top Zelenskyy aide, Andriy Yermak, was forced to resign last year as investigators probed a scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks from contractors to the state nuclear company, Energoatom.
Mykhaylo Fedorov, who served as defense minister until he was forced out in July, has publicly and loudly complained about corruption in the defense sector, in what many observers saw as an open challenge to Zelenskyy.
The top general overseeing Ukraine's military, General Oleksandr Syrskiy, with whom Fedorov had clashed, was later pushed out.
Zelenskyy has not been implicated in the scandals, which earlier resulted in the resignations or firing of justice and energy ministers.
In July, Zelenskyy also shook up his entire government, pushing out Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and replacing her with the head of state energy company Naftogaz. He also replaced the country's ambassador to Washington who faces her own graft allegations.
But the scandals have tarnished Zelenskyy's popularity, and several opinion polls show him trailing several prominent public figures.
Foremost among them is Valeriy Zaluzhniy, the former top general and commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s military. He is now serving as as Kyiv's ambassador to London.
