| Ukraine's Zelensky Bowed to Trump's Demands, Until Luck Spared Him |
| Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=28409"><span class="small">Andrew E. Kramer, The New York Times</span></a> |
| Thursday, 07 November 2019 14:04 |
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Kramer writes: "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."
Ukraine's Zelensky Bowed to Trump's Demands, Until Luck Spared Him07 November 19
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. |
t 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.