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KYIV – It’s the new year, but the Procurator General’s Office of Ukraine is still resisting the U.S. government’s anti-corruption recommendations.

The latest episode in the U.S. government’s anti-corruption struggles with the Poroshenko administration involves Procurator General Viktor Shokin denying permission for Deputy Procurator General Vitaliy Kasko to travel to Washington as part of a senior-level Ukrainian delegation that will examine anti-corruption reform.

In the Procurator General’s Office, Mr. Kasko is responsible for international cooperation, asset forfeiture and asset recovery. Last fall, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt praised Mr. Kasko for his anti-corruption initiatives and came to his defense after reported pressure from his superiors to undermine these efforts.

“By withholding permission for Mr. Kasko to join the delegation, you may hinder the advancement of reform efforts,” said a letter addressed to Mr. Shokin that was written and sent in December by an unidentified U.S. Embassy official. It was posted on Facebook on January 11 by National Deputy Svitlana Zalishchuk of the Poroshenko Bloc.

The senior-level delegation will travel to Washington on January 18-21, said Jonathan Lalley, a spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine. Representatives of the Ukrainian Justice Ministry, Procurator General’s Office and the newly appointed Anti-Corruption Prosecutors Unit will meet with their senior-level counterparts at the White House, the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Justice Department, he said.

“The visit serves as another strong signal of U.S. support for those in the Prosecutor General’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau in Ukraine and elsewhere working to build a judicial system free from corruption and firmly ground in rule of law,” Mr. Lalley said.

As for the letter’s author within the U.S. Embassy, he declined to comment on the Embassy’s private diplomatic correspondence. In the Facebook posting, the letter’s footer, bearing the signature, is intentionally cut off to avoid revealing its author.

The unidentified U.S. official informed Mr. Shokin he is “very disappointed” at his refusal to allow Mr. Kasko to join the delegation. His participation would have been crucial given his responsibilities with the office, the letter stated.

“You have repeatedly requested U.S. assistance in international cooperation but now, when we make this unique opportunity available to your experts, and to Mr. Kasko in particular, you deny Mr. Kasko the chance to attend,” the letter said.

The meetings will give the senior-level Ukrainians the opportunity to discuss policy and practical issues on anti-corruption reform with their American counterparts, the letter said. It urged Mr. Shokin to reconsider his decision.

Yet Mr. Kasko confirmed this week that his superior hasn’t changed his mind.

“I received a personal invitation, and he simply didn’t let me go, despite the trip being at the expense of the U.S.,” Mr. Kasko said, as reported by the Ukrinform news agency on January 11.

He added that many issues to be discussed fall under his responsibility, including extending cooperation on returning the misappropriated assets of top officials, exchanging intelligence and reforming the Procurator General’s Office.

Mr. Kasko, a 39-year-old native of Lviv, is considered to be among the new generation of Ukrainian professionals committed to reform. He built his career as a state prosecutor before going into private practice in 2005. In 2013, he led the criminal law department at Arzinger law firm in Kyiv.

Mr. Kasko has authored numerous works on returning misappropriated assets, restricting torture, combating human trafficking and protecting witnesses.

This was the fifth time that Mr. Shokin denied Mr. Kasko permission to travel abroad at the invitation of his Western colleagues, Ms. Zalishchuk reported. These invitations include those extended by the anti-corruption agencies of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

She commented that she believes it could be related to his investigations of corruption among top prosecutors, particularly in the well-publicized “diamond prosecutors” affair.

In that case, two fellow deputy prosecutors allegedly attempted to pressure young prosecutorial investigators in the summer to drop their bribery charges against two key officials they arrested on July 6: a former first deputy head of the Procurator General’s Main Investigative Administration, Volodymyr Shapakin, and a former deputy prosecutor of the Kyiv Oblast, Oleksandr Korniyets.

These two officials – known as the “diamond prosecutors” because 65 diamonds were found in Mr. Korniyets’s possession during their arrest – were quickly dismissed from their positions after public pressure. They were detained and released on bail.

Another prosecutor praised by Mr. Pyatt, Deputy Procurator General David Sakvarelidze, confirmed in mid-December 2015 that the evidence has been prepared for the criminal trial of the diamond prosecutors. He said the defendants were delaying their review of the materials. Mr. Korniyets has also claimed to be ill.

“I encourage all of you to speak up in support of these brave investigators and prosecutors,” Mr. Pyatt said in an October 2015 address to the Kyiv School of Economics. “Give them the resources and support to successfully prosecute these and future cases.”

There’s a rivalry between Messrs. Kasko and Shokin, and the latter has been itching for the chance to dismiss the former, his popular deputy, said Volodymyr Horbach, a political analyst at the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation in Kyiv.

Yet Mr. Kasko has interests that may extend beyond fighting corruption, he added. Mr. Shokin, a member of Mr. Poroshenko’s political entourage, opposes Mr. Kasko because he believes he’s aligned with Igor Kolomoisky, the industrial magnate who is Mr. Poroshenko’s biggest political opponent.

“Poroshenko and Shokin perceive Kasko as a prodigy of Kolomoisky, which is the source of their rivalry with him,” said Mr. Horbach, pointing out that Mr. Kolomoisky has pursued an active campaign to discredit Mr. Shokin, particularly on the 1+1 television network that he controls.

The U.S. ambassador first went public with the U.S. government’s dissatisfaction with the Procurator General’s Office in late September 2015, when he accused corrupt actors of aggressively undermining reform. His criticism was backed up by Victoria Nuland, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.

It’s the U.S. government’s support for Mr. Kasko that has kept him in the Procurator General’s Office for this long, since his appointment in May 2014, Mr. Horbach said. At the same time, the U.S. government shouldn’t be endorsing someone who could be mixed up in Ukraine’s oligarch clan wars.

“The U.S. government is approaching this situation motivated by the fight against corruption in Ukraine and is trying to do what is necessary,” he said. “But it’s underestimating the conflict between the oligarch groups and the Ukrainian government, which affects the political system entirely. It’s not advisable to interfere in Ukraine’s affairs without understanding these dynamics, which can exacerbate existing problems and create new ones.”