Prosecutor General of Ukraine


The Prosecutor General of Ukraine heads the system of official prosecution in courts known as the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. In 1991 the post was inherited from the socialist law state. The term of authority of the Prosecutor is six years. She or he is appointed and dismissed by the president with parliamentary consent. Parliament can force the Prosecutor General to resign after a vote of no-confidence.
The current Prosecutor General is since 17 March 2020 Iryna Venediktova.
There are seven more additional deputies to the Prosecutor General. The Prosecution General Office is a state institution that is directly proscribed in the Constitution of Ukraine along with the Cabinet of Ukraine, Verkhovna Rada, President of Ukraine.
Since its establishment in 1917/18 the Prosecutor General Office of Ukraine was subordinated to the Government of Ukraine, while the Prosecutor General holding the post of the Minister of Justice. In 1922 it was reorganized under socialist law after the Soviet occupation of Ukraine. With adaptation of the Stalin's Constitution of 1936/37, the office's subordination changed and, instead of subordinating to the government of Ukraine, it was subordinated to the Prosecutor General Office of the Soviet Union directly. The status of the office was lowered and no longer holding any posts in the government of the union republic. With dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Prosecutor General Office of Ukraine exists as an independent agency.

Definition

The Office of the Prosecutor General is entrusted with:
  1. prosecution in court on behalf of the State;
  2. representation of the interests of a citizen or of the State in court in cases determined by law;
  3. supervision of the observance of laws by bodies that conduct detective and search activity, inquiry and pre-trial investigation;
  4. supervision of the observance of laws in the execution of judicial decisions in criminal cases, and also in the application of other measures of coercion related to the restraint of personal liberty of citizens.
The Prosecutor General is appointed to office by the President of Ukraine with the consent of the Verkhovna Rada. The Prosecutor is dismissed from office by the President. The Verkhovna Rada may express no confidence in the Prosecutor which will results, after a required number of votes is achieved, in their resignation from office.

Duties and powers

Both in theory and in practice, the Prosecutor General and their office wield considerable power. This is a legacy of the Soviet Union state prosecutor’s office founded in 1937 of which the current Prosecutor General office is the successor. After Ukraine's independence in 1991 many of the Prosecutor General office functions were expanded. In 2016 the powers of the Prosecutor General office were decreased and limited to:
On annual basis the Prosecutor General has to report to the Verkhovna Rada about the legal situation in the country.
The Prosecutor General creates a collegiate council consisting out of the Prosecutor General, their first and other deputies, the Prosecutor of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and other leaders of prosecution agencies.
The independent agency General Inspectorate oversees "the legality of actions undertaken by prosecutors and investigators of the whole prosecution system".

Structure

Early period

The post of Prosecutor General appeared back in 1917. After Ukrainian declared its independence from the Russian Republic due to the Bolshevik's aggression, the post was held by the minister of justice.
#TermName
x1917 — 1918Dmytro Markovych
1Serhiy Shelukhin
xMykhailo Chubynskyi
xOleksiy Romanov
2Andriy Viazlov
3Viktor Reinbot

Soviet period

After the occupation of Ukraine by Bolsheviks in June of 1922 there was established the Prosecutor's Office of the Ukrainian SSR. In the early years of the Ukrainian SSR, the office of Prosecutor General was merged with the Minister of Justice until spring 1936. From 1937 to 1991 the republican prosecution office of Ukraine was subordinated to the Prosecutor General of the USSR. Until 1937 the Prosecutor General of Ukraine was appointed by the higher bodies of state power of Ukraine.
#TermNameOfficial title
11922 — 1927Mykola SkrypnykProcurator General
21927 — 1930Vasyl PoraikoProcurator General
31930 — 1933Vasiliy PolyakovProcurator General
41933 — 1935Mikhail MikhailikProcurator General
51935 — 1936Arkadiy KiselyovProcurator General
61936Grigoriy ZhelyeznogorskiyProcurator General
71938 — 1944Leonid YacheninProcurator
81944 — 1953Roman RudenkoProcurator
91953 — 1963Denys PanasyukProcurator
101963 — 1983Fedir HlukhProcurator
111983 — 1990Petro OsypenkoProcurator

List of Prosecutors General

This list shows prosecutors of independent Ukraine. In the absence of the Prosecutor General, the office is headed by their First Deputy as the acting Prosecutor General.
Prior to January 2017 the term of authority of the Prosecutor was five years. Since January 2017 this was increased to six years.
#Prosecutor General of UkraineName
1September 4, 1991 — October 21, 1993'
2October 21, 1993 — October 19, 1995Vladyslav Datsiuk
3October 19, 1995 — July 22, 1997Hryhoriy Vorsinov
actJuly 22, 1997 — April 24, 1998Oleh Lytvak
actApril 24, 1998 — July 17, 1998Bohdan Ferents
4July 17, 1998 — April 30, 2002Mykhailo Potebenko
April 30, 2002 — July 6, 2002unknown
5July 6, 2002 — October 29, 2003Sviatoslav Piskun
October 29, 2003 — November 18, 2003unknown
6November 18, 2003 — December 9, 2004Hennadiy Vasylyev
7December 10, 2004 — October 14, 2005Sviatoslav Piskun
October 14, 2005 — November 4, 2005unknown
8November 4, 2005 — April 26, 2007Oleksandr Medvedko
9April 26, 2007 — May 24, 2007Sviatoslav Piskun
actMay 24, 2007 — June 1, 2007Viktor Shemchuk
10June 1, 2007 — November 3, 2010Oleksandr Medvedko
11November 4, 2010 — February 22, 2014Viktor Pshonka
commFebruary 22, 2014 — February 24, 2014Oleh Makhnitsky
actFebruary 24, 2014 — June 18, 2014Oleh Makhnitsky
12June 19, 2014 — February 11, 2015Vitaly Yarema
13February 11, 2015 — March 29, 2016Viktor Shokin
actMarch 29, 2016 — 12 May 2016Yuriy Sevruk
14May 12, 2016 — August 29, 2019Yuriy Lutsenko
15August 29, 2019 — March 5, 2020Ruslan Riaboshapka
actMarch 6, 2020 – March 17, 2020Viktor Chumak
16March 17, 2020 – presentIryna Venediktova

Legend:
  • act — acting
  • comm — Parliamentary commissioner
Notes:'