Ukraine's Special Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) has said it is extremely concerned about the situation that has arisen during the last several days between the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP). SAPO called for immediate steps to be taken to mitigate the spat.

SAPO said on its Facebook page on Friday that the situation could be mitigated by the civil control boards of NABU and NACP and called on both agencies to "act only in accordance with their [respective] grants of authorities…"

SAPO calls on the leaders of NABU and NACP "to act solely within the limits of their powers and discourage any temptation to use their high official position in order to avoid possible legal liability."

"According to the law, SAPO does not have the authority to supervise the activities of the NAPC and has only powers to monitor the NABU specified solely by the scope of a criminal process. At the same time, SAPO has the constitutional function of organizing pre-trial investigations in criminal proceedings conducted by detectives of the NABU, and thus cannot stand aside from the attempts to use these investigations to settle old scores," the report said.