Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych dismissed on Wednesday the country's prosecutor general, Oleksandr Medvedko, according to a decree published on the presidential website, RIA Novosti reported.
Medvedko's term in office was to expire on Thursday.
Yanukovych has proposed Vyktor Pshonka, who has been first deputy prosecutor general since June, to take over, the presidential press office said.
Medvedko was Ukrainian prosecutor general in November 2005-April 2007, and then served as a deputy to Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun until June 2007, when he returned to the top position with the support of Yanukovych, then Ukraine's prime minister
Under Medvedko, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office was accused of failing to investigate a resonant murder of prominent Ukrainian journalist Georgy Gongadze in September 2000 and the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko, a former Ukrainian president, during the 2004 election campaign.
Pshonka's candidacy has to be approved by at least 226 members of the country's 450-strong parliament. Ukraine's government has the support of a three-party parliamentary majority that is dominated by Yanukovych's Party of Regions and holds 265 seats in the Supreme Rada.
Party of Regions lawmaker Mikhail Chechetov expressed confidence that more than 300 Ukrainian deputies would support Pshonka's candidacy, adding that the vote would be held soon.