The head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) was appointed today. He became Oleksandr Klymenko, who was approved for the position by the new Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin immediately after his appointment.

This was reported by the head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak in Telegram.

"Congratulations to Andrey Kostin on the beginning of his work as the head of the GPU, and Alexander Klimenko on his appointment as the head of the SAP. I wish you effective work. Independent anti-corruption infrastructure is an important component of democracy in Ukraine", - wrote Yermak.

It should be noted that immediately after the presidential decree, Kostin appointed Klymenko as head of the SAP. The relevant document was published on the president's website.

We shall remind you that back on July 19, the competition commission completed the procedure for appointing the head of the agency, which is one of the requirements of Ukraine's candidacy to the EU. However, as reported, the final approval of Klymenko's candidacy was for the Office of the Prosecutor General, which became known today.

It is worth noting that in March 2016 Klymenko took part in the competition and became a detective of the National anti-corruption Bureau. And a year later - a senior detective, and since November 2017 - the head of the department.

During this time, he investigated criminal proceedings against ex-nardeperson-fugitive Oleksandr Onishchenko, former head of the State Fiscal Service Roman Nasirov, and deputy head of the Office of the President Oleg Tatarov. He headed the teams of prosecutors in the case of the former deputy secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, Oleh Hladkovskyy.

On 21 December 2021, the commission for the election of the SAP leadership announced the rating of the candidates based on the results of the competition. Oleksandr Klymenko received 246 points, while prosecutor Andriy Sinyuk had 229 points.

The appointment of the head of the SAP, as well as the head of the NABU, is one of the EU requirements for Ukraine as a candidate to join the bloc. Consequently, Ukraine may lose its candidate status and European perspective if it fails to meet this requirement.