Ukraine Was Still Checking Its Bank Account For US Aid For A Month After The Trump Call

[A_Thinker]

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/articl...ine-unaware-aid-holdup-month-after-trump-call

 

[Halbhh]

KIEV, Ukraine — When Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with President Donald Trump in the now-infamous July 25 phone call, he believed $391 million worth of military aid was already on its way to Kiev, two Ukrainian officials and a US official told BuzzFeed News.

The Ukrainian government didn’t know it was being held up in Washington by Trump, according to the two Ukrainian officials. ...

Ukraine was expecting $250 million from the Pentagon, plus another $141 million from the State Department, and officials described panic at the news that they wouldn’t be getting the aid they relied upon to fight Russia in a war that has now gone on for more than five years.

“Yes, of course, we were worried, because actually we didn’t find any plausible reason” for the hold-up, said Oleksiy Semeniy, an aide for then-secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Danylyuk.

Ukraine finally learned about the holdup in late August, nearly a month after the call, according to Olena Zerkal, the deputy foreign minister who was acting minister at the time of the call. And they only found out from a “letter sent to us from our Washington Embassy” that provided no explanation for the move, she said. ...

The Ukrainians officials’ comments underscore their concern over the frozen military support and show for the first time just how long Kiev was left out of the loop about its delay. They also suggest that the White House blindsided Zelensky, who was unaware that he wasn’t getting the military aid he was expecting when he spoke to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, about the conflict on Aug. 7. Ukraine has long needed US assistance to transform its army into a fierce fighting force that can withstand the might of Russia’s military.
...
Last week Trump claimed he held up the aid because of concerns about corruption in the country. “We want to make sure that country is honest,” Trump said of Ukraine. “It’s very important to talk about corruption. If you don’t talk about corruption, why would you give money to a country that you think is corrupt?”

But he changed his reason the next day, saying he ordered the aid held because of what he said was a lack of similar support to Ukraine from other Western nations. ...
(from the OP link)
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Wow. It feels like we just basically elected a criminal acting person to be president didn't we?

 

[Halbhh]

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/articl...ine-unaware-aid-holdup-month-after-trump-call

Here's what happened next:

Ukraine’s Zelensky Bowed to Trump’s Demands, Until Luck Spared Him

 

[stevil]

Here's what happened next:

Ukraine’s Zelensky Bowed to Trump’s Demands, Until Luck Spared Him

I couldn't read that article as I am not subscribed to NYT but I assume it is about the fact that Zelensky was scheduled to have a CNN interview and publicly announce an investigation into Biden. But then the Whistle blower complaint came to light, then the aid money and javelins came through and then Zelensky cancelled the CNN interview.

I can see why Zelensky is also trying to cover this up, and also trying to stay in Trump's good graces.
The Russians are still invading, Trump is still the USA president, the Ukraines are still in desperate need for USA's continued support.

Trump and Putin have got a great thing going on here. Putin wants Trump re-elected. He puts pressure on Ukraine, Trump smiles, Trump withholds military aid to Ukraine telling Zelensky to open a public investigation of the Bidens. Zelenski books a CNN interview, Trump and Putin smile. Zelenski appears on CNN <smiling> saying that Biden is to be investigated. Trump and Putin watch CNN laughing. Zelenski calls Trump asking for his aid. Trump rejects Zelenski, cancels aid. Trump and Putin clang glasses together and skull back their vodkas.

 

[Halbhh]

I couldn't read that article as I am not subscribed to NYT but I assume it is about the fact that Zelensky was scheduled to have a CNN interview and publicly announce an investigation into Biden. But then the Whistle blower complaint came to light, then the aid money and javelins came through and then Zelensky cancelled the CNN interview.

I can see why Zelensky is also trying to cover this up, and also trying to stay in Trump's good graces.
The Russians are still invading, Trump is still the USA president, the Ukraines are still in desperate need for USA's continued support.

Trump and Putin have got a great thing going on here. Putin wants Trump re-elected. He puts pressure on Ukraine, Trump smiles, Trump withholds military aid to Ukraine telling Zelensky to open a public investigation of the Bidens. Zelenski books a CNN interview, Trump and Putin smile. Zelenski appears on CNN <smiling> saying that Biden is to be investigated. Trump and Putin watch CNN laughing. Zelenski calls Trump asking for his aid. Trump rejects Zelenski, cancels aid. Trump and Putin clang glasses together and skull back their vodkas.

Here are some excerpts from the article, which will be of interest I think. (btw, you can read I think about 4 or 5 free NYTimes articles a month (if you register your email?), but perhaps you've already used those up! )

"Aides to Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, decided that military aid and support for peace talks outweighed the risks of appearing to take sides in American politics.

KIEV, Ukraine — It was early September, and Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, faced an agonizing choice: whether to capitulate to President Trump’s demands to publicly announce investigations against his political enemies or to refuse, and lose desperately needed military aid.

Only Mr. Trump could unlock the aid, he had been told by two United States senators, and time was running out. If the money, nearly $400 million, were not unblocked by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, it could be lost in its entirety.

In a flurry of WhatsApp messages and meetings in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, over several days, senior aides debated the point. Avoiding partisan politics in the United States had always been the first rule of Ukrainian foreign policy, but the military aid was vital to the war against Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, a conflict that has cost 13,000 lives since it began in 2014.

By then, however, Mr. Zelensky’s staffers were already conceding to what seemed to be the inevitable, and making plans for a public announcement about the investigations. It was a fateful decision for a fledgling president elected on an anticorruption platform that included putting an end to politically motivated investigations.
...
As President Trump’s principal envoy to Ukraine, Gordon Sondland, admitted Tuesday in congressional testimony, the Trump administration had withheld the military aid to pressure Mr. Zelensky to make a public statement on the two investigations: one into whether former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had pressed for the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating Burisma, a natural gas company where his son served on the board; the other into unproven accusations that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that meddled in the 2016 election to promote the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.

... a public statement that raised doubts about Russian meddling and Mr. Biden, whom the president regarded as the greatest threat to his re-election, would be far more useful politically to Mr. Trump. Not only would it smear Mr. Biden, it could also appear to undermine the Mueller investigation into Russian electoral interference by pinning some blame on Ukraine.

A tug-of-war ensued between a senior aide to Mr. Zelensky, Andriy Yermak, and another of Mr. Trump’s envoys to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, over the wording of the proposed public statement. Mr. Volker went so far as to draft a statement for Mr. Zelensky that mentioned both investigations.

Mr. Yermak pushed back, suggesting language that mentioned investigations but in general terms, so as not to antagonize the Democrats. Late in the negotiations, the American diplomats consented to dropping mention of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.

Even as Mr. Yermak negotiated the wording in August, the stakes were clear. ...

The trade soon became explicit. They were approached in September by Mr. Sondland, a major donor to Mr. Trump’s inauguration who had been appointed ambassador to the European Union despite having no diplomatic experience. At that point, he explained in blunt terms to Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Yermak, there was little chance the aid would be forthcoming until they made the public statement on the investigations.
...
(continues)
Ukraine’s Zelensky Bowed to Trump’s Demands, Until Luck Spared Him
Andrew E. Kramer is a reporter based in the Moscow bureau. He was part of a team that won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting for a series on Russia’s covert projection of power.

 

[stevil]

Here are some excerpts from the article, which will be of interest I think. (btw, you can read I think about 4 or 5 free NYTimes articles a month (if you register your email?), but perhaps you've already used those up! ).

Thanks for taking the time to post the content.