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Mike Pompeo to visit Ukraine ahead of Trump impeachment trial Mike Pompeo to visit Ukraine ahead of Trump impeachment trial
(about 3 hours later)
US secretary of state to meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who Trump allegedly pressured to investigate Joe Biden US secretary of state to meet Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who Trump allegedly pressured to investigate Joe Biden
Mike Pompeo will travel to Ukraine this week, ahead of Donald Trump’s trial in the Senate over allegations he sought to push Kiev to investigate a political rival. Mike Pompeo will travel to Ukraine this week in a gesture of support for its government, ahead of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate on charges that he sought to pressure Kyiv into investigating a political rival.
The trip will make Pompeo the most senior US official to visit Kiev since a scandal erupted earlier this year over a controversial phone call in which Trump allegedly tried to pressure his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy to find dirt on Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden. The secretary of state’s trip on Friday to see President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will mark the highest-level US visit since the Ukraine scandal erupted over the summer, when it emerged that Trump had withheld military aid and an Oval Office invitation to Zelenskiy until Zelenskiy announced an investigation into the former US vice-president Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter.
Pompeo will travel to Kiev on 3 January and will meet Zelensky as well as other top Ukrainian officials, a state department spokeswoman said on Monday. Trump also wanted the Ukrainian government to open an investigation into a conspiracy theory, already debunked by US intelligence, that the Democratic party had sought to hide emails in a server located in Ukraine.
Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress on 18 December and faces trial in the Senate, possibly in January, though top Democratic and Republican lawmakers are still sparring over how it will be conducted. A senior state department official said Pompeo’s visit would “underscore the strong and unwavering US support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s aggression and also to discuss Ukraine’s progress in implementing the reforms necessary for Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration”.
Pompeo, a staunch Trump defender, was personally implicated by several witnesses during the impeachment inquiry, in part for allowing the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to establish a parallel diplomatic track in Ukraine in coordination with Trump, bypassing regular channels. In a briefing to reporters to preview Pompeo’s trip – which will also take him to Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Cyprus – state department officials repeatedly ignored questions related to impeachment.
Trump is accused of withholding $400m in assistance to Ukraine and a White House meeting with Zelenskiy to push Kiev to investigate Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of directors of a Ukrainian gas company. They also refused comment on the departure – before Pompeo’s arrival in Kyiv – of the acting US ambassador, Bill Taylor, who provided testimony at Trump’s impeachment hearings about his concerns an Oval Office meeting for Zelenskiy, and nearly $400m in US military aid, were being used as leverage to procure investigations that would be damaging to Trump’s opponents in the 2020 election.
Despite testimony from 17 officials that Trump leveraged his office for political gain, the president has maintained his innocence throughout the impeachment inquiry – denouncing it as an “attempted coup” and an “assault on America.” According to witness testimony and press reports, Trump was scathing in private about the Ukrainian government, declaring at one point: “They are all corrupt, they are all terrible people.”
The state department statement did not mention corruption in Ukraine, although the White House has insisted this was the reason Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate the Bidens. State department officials did not refer to those remarks, but offered a much more positive assessment of Zelenskiy, who won elections in April.
Ortagus only suggested that this issue could be discussed by referring to talks on “the investment climate, and the government’s reform agenda.” “The Ukrainian president has undertaken a tremendous number of reform efforts, has shown real leadership, some very positive developments,” one official said, adding Zelenskiy “is living up to his commitments and campaign promises in terms of trying to deal with individual Ukrainians”.
A senior State Department official, speaking on a phone call with reporters in Washington, said Pompeo’s trip “reinforces our support for Ukraine” as it works to “stamp out corruption.” Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress on 18 December. He now faces trial in the Senate, possibly in January. However, there is still no agreement on how a Senate trial would be conducted.
When asked repeatedly to specify whether Pompeo intended to reiterate the calls for an investigation into the Bidens, the official evaded questions and confined himself to praise for Zelenskiy. According to testimony by several former and current administration officials, Pompeo was fully aware of the effort to put pressure on Zelenskiy, spearheaded by the president’s personal lawyer and fixer, Rudy Giuliani. Pompeo did nothing to stop a success effort by Giuliani had his Florida business associates to oust the former ambassador to Kyiv, Marie Yovanovich.
The visit will also come after Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists battling the government’s forces exchanged 200 prisoners, a further sign of the fragile detente that has begun since Zelenskiy was elected in April. The Pompeo visit comes at a time when Zelenskiy is seeking to defuse the conflict with Russia in western Ukraine. Kyiv and Russian-backed separatists exchanged 200 prisoners over the weekend and Zelenskiy confirmed on Monday that his government had signed a five-year gas transit deal guaranteeing Russian supply to Europe.
Pompeo’s trip aims to “reaffirm US support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Ortagus said. Also on Monday, the White House confirmed that Trump had spoken to Vladimir Putin on Sunday, some 24 hours after the Kremlin had reported the call. A White House statement said that Putin had thanked Trump for US information that helped foil a potential holiday terrorist attack in Russia.
The State Department official echoed the statement, saying that the trip serves to “underscore the strong and unwavering US support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s aggression.” “Both presidents committed to continuing counterterrorism cooperation between the two countries,” the statement said. “The presidents also discussed the state of relations between the United States and Russia and future efforts to support effective arms control.”
Due to the Trump-Ukraine scandal, Washington has in recent months become a spectator to developments in the European country, particularly since Kurt Volker, the US special envoy on Ukraine, resigned in September after reports of the controversy first came to light.