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US Vice President Biden says asked Ukrainian leader to sack prosecutor general

Otherwise the American government will not provide Ukraine with promised $1 billion loan

US Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko Mikhail Palinchak/Press Office of the President of Ukraine/TASS

US Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko

© Mikhail Palinchak/Press Office of the President of Ukraine/TASS

WASHINGTON, August 24. /TASS/. US Vice President Joe Biden asked Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko to dismiss the country’s former prosecutor general earlier in the year otherwise the American government would not provide Ukraine with promised $1 billion loan, US magazine Atlantic reported.

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The American magazine quoted Biden as saying about his conversation with the Ukrainian president, to whom he refers to as Petro: "Petro, you’re not getting your billion dollars."

"It’s OK, you can keep the [prosecutor] general," Biden said. "Just understand - we’re not paying if you do."

Earlier in the year Poroshenko submitted a request for the dismissal of Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin with the Ukrainian Parliament, the Supreme Rada, and on March 29 the members of the parliament voted in favor of sacking the official at the issue.

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