The information about the dismissal of Andriy Kostin from the post of Prosecutor General is still at the level of gossip, and there is no final decision. At least until the end of April, no changes are planned. This was reported to UNN by several sources close to the Presidential Office.
"The country's security forces definitely need to change, which is why there are rumors from time to time about the dismissal of the Prosecutor General, the heads of the Interior Ministry and the Security Service. But there are no final decisions," says one of the interlocutors.
Kostin himself is also in no hurry to leave his post. Instead, some contenders for the Prosecutor General's office have already started their PR campaigns to try to bring down their main competitors.
In fact, the most realistic candidates include three people: the current First Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksiy Khomenko, Deputy Prosecutor General Dmytro Verbytskyi, and the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration Oleh Kiper, the former head of the Kyiv Prosecutor's Office. The latter has publicly denied his appointment as Prosecutor General, saying that there was no talk about it.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, a former prosecutor and current head of the AMCU, was also named the most likely candidate. However, journalistic investigations into the official's property are likely to cause him to "quit this race" ahead of schedule.
As for Artem Sytnyk and Oleksiy Symonenko, who are also mentioned in the context of candidates, their candidacies are unlikely. Sytnyk is still in the official register of corrupt officials, while Symonenko was fired from the Prosecutor General's Office with a scandalous record.
"Symonenko had a hard time with his dismissal and, apparently, now saw a chance for a comeback. He has a good relationship with Kostin's acting deputy, Verbytskyi. It is said that during their conversations, they sometimes come up with ideas of information wars against other applicants and ideas of how to use their friendly relations with some OP officials in the race for the position. However, no one is going anywhere yet, Kostin is in place and engaged in his daily work, and his place is already shared by applicants. Unfortunately, this is always the case with high positions," says the interlocutor of the agency.