US Denies Giving Ukraine's Lutsenko "Do Not Prosecute" List

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. Photo credit: Isabella Zaratsyan / U.S. State Department 

Both the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine deny giving the Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko a do not prosecute list.

Lutsenko told American publication The Hill in an interview aired on March 20 that the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch gave him a list of whom Ukraine should not prosecute "from the first meeting."

The U.S. Embassy told Hromadske that Lutsenko's statement does not represent the reality and was given with the intention to "weaken ambassador Yovanovitch's reputation." 

"Such attacks only deepen our readiness to help Ukraine achieve victory in fighting corruption," the embassy stated.

The U.S. Department of State told The Hill such claim was an "outright fabrication." 

The Hill reported on March 20 that Lutsenko told them that such alleged Yovanovitch's behavior was "inadmissible."

"Nobody in this country, neither our president nor our parliament nor our ambassador, will stop me from prosecuting whether there is a crime,” The Hill cited the Prosecutor General as saying.