Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko has admitted that US ambassador Marie Yovanovitch has not given him a "do not prosecute" list.
Lutsenko described details of the visit in an interview with The Babel.
"The meeting was at the Prosecutor-General's Office, right at this table in January 2017. It was not one on one. She was not alone, and I was not alone. Mrs Yovanovitch was interested in the case of Vitaliy Kasko . The thing is that Mr Kasko registered his mother in his office apartment, who never left Lviv, there were signs of abuse in this," Lutsenko said.
"According to her, Kasko was an outstanding anticorruption activist, and the criminal case discredited anticorruption activists. I presented the details and explained that I could not open and close production at will. I also named a number of so-called anticorruption activists mentioned in the cases. She said that it was unacceptable because it could undermine the credibility of anticorruption activists. I took a piece of paper, wrote down the surnames I had mentioned and said: "Dictate the list of those intact." She said: "No, you got it wrong." I said: "No, I got it right; earlier such lists were written in Bankova [street where the presidential office is located], and you are offering new lists from Tankova [the former name of Sikorsky Street, where the US Embassy is located]. The meeting ended. I am afraid that the emotions were not very positive," he said.
In early March, Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko said in an interview with The Hill that the US ambassador gave him a list of people who should not be prosecuted. The Department of State called his statement "an outright fabrication".