The Regional State Administration has not commented on reports of Keeper's dismissal

On September 8, reports emerged that Oleg Kipper, head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, had submitted his resignation, but the military administration itself has not commented on the matter. 

According to Oleksiy Goncharenko, a member of parliament from Odesa,Kipper submitted a letter of resignation from his position as head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration.

Screenshot of MP Goncharenko’s post

This occurred amid a special operation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) to expose a criminal organization led by Serhiy Kropiva, an official with the Office of the Prosecutor General who had previously served as Kipper’s deputy.

Intent attempted to obtain a comment from Oleg Kipperregarding reports of his possible resignation. However, we were unable to reach the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration by phone—the response was that “the subscriber cannot accept your call.”

In May 2023, Oleg Kipper was officially appointed head of the Odesa Regional State Administration by decree of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

 Kiper is originally from the village of Tymkove in the Kodymsky District of the Odesa region. On September 11, 2020, he was appointed head of the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office. In 2014, Kipper was barred from holding public office under the “On Purification of Government” law; however, he later succeeded in having the vetting provisions overturned through the courts.

Operation “Carthage”

On the evening of September 4, NABU and the SAP announced a special operation titled “Carthage” aimed at “exposing a criminal organization led by an official from the Office of the Prosecutor General.” As part of the operation, investigators raided the offices of Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko and his first deputy, Maria Vdovichenko.

After the searches, NABU published a photo of a safe stuffed with dollar bills but did not explain who it belonged to.

Media outlets also reported that NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) conducted searches at the residence of Oleg Kipper, head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration.

It later emerged that anti-corruption authorities had detained 42-year-old Serhiy Kropiva, who has been working at the Office of the Prosecutor General since last summer as deputy head of the Department of International Cooperation. Prior to that, he had served as deputy head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration under Oleg Kiper.

On September 6, the High Anti-Corruption Court remanded Kropiva into custody with the possibility of bail set at 120 million hryvnias. 

The High Anti-Corruption Court also arrested a confidant ofKropiva, the former deputy head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration.

Ірина Глухова