Chief Crimean prosecutor Ihor Ponochovnyy, who collaborated with human rights advocates, dismissed

On September 9, 2025, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko dismissed Ihor Ponochovnyy as head of the Prosecutor’s Office for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, where he had worked since 2019. The Center of Journalistic Investigationsі (CJI) pointed out that despite the Crimean prosecutor’s office’s successes, Ponochovnyy has not yet received any offers for reappointment or a new position and has resigned from the prosecutor’s office. Human rights advocates who have cooperated with the Crimean prosecutor’s office on international crimes issues in the occupied peninsula are concerned about the changes at the institution.

Ihor Ponochovnyy

According to the news outlet, the Prosecutor General’s order states that Ihor Ponochovnyy was dismissed due to the expiration of his term in office. His duties are now being performed by the First Deputy Head of the Prosecutor’s Office for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, Vitaliy Sekretar.

The CJI noted that the order on Ponochovnyy’s dismissal is not available on the website of the Prosecutor General’s Office. However, Ponochovnyy’s name is no longer listed in the “Management” section of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol’s website.

Mr Ponochovnyy had held this position since October 2019. In a comment to the Center of Journalistic Investigations, he said that his dismissal was in accordance with the law, as five years had passed since he took up his leadership position in the prosecutor’s office. At the same time, the Law on the Prosecutor’s Office does not prohibit the reappointment of a prosecutor to the same administrative position after the previous term has expired.

“I learned about my dismissal from a copy of the Prosecutor General’s order, which was sent to my email inbox. Unfortunately, I did not receive any offers for an equivalent position, so I decided to resign from the prosecutor’s office. Tomorrow is my last day here,” said the former official.

The Center for Investigative Journalism also learned from its own sources about significant staff cuts in the Crimean prosecutor’s office: 115 employee positions were cut, eight of which were prosecutor positions.

Civil society and human rights advocates have expressed concern about this situation. In recent years, they have worked with the Crimean prosecutor’s office to document and investigate war crimes in temporarily occupied Crimea, submit reports to the International Criminal Court, and file requests to improve Ukrainian legislation.

In particular, Olha Skrypnyk, chair of the Crimean Human Rights Group, said:

Olha Skrypnyk (R)

“As human rights defenders who have been documenting international crimes committed by Russians in Crimea since 2014, we see serious risks in the situation with the prosecutor’s office for the effective investigation of such crimes and the protection of the interests of victims. These are not just personnel changes, but essentially the destruction of an institution and a professional team that has been in place since 2016 and has proven its effectiveness in investigating international crimes even before the full-scale invasion began.”

In addition, according to Skrypnyk, the changes and reshuffles in the Crimean prosecutor’s office pose a threat to the protection of information about victims and witnesses, as well as to the effectiveness of investigations into international crimes on the Crimean Peninsula.

By way of background, as of February 2025, criminal cases had been opened in Ukraine for more than 3,800 war crimes and crimes against national security committed in Crimea. The courts have already handed down about 200 verdicts in this category of criminal cases.