The former National Security Council official provided some of the most explosive testimony yet

The fifth, and possibly final, day of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump was one of the most explosive. Here are five key takeaways:

Ukraine scheme ‘very clear’

In perhaps the most meticulous testimony yet, Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council official and former top Russia expert in the White House, testified on Thursday that it was “very clear” that US officials had made a White House meeting for the Ukrainian president contingent on an announcement of investigations into Joe Biden and 2016 election interference.

Fiona Hill: stop ‘fictional narrative’ of Ukraine meddling in US election Read more

“It became very clear the White House meeting itself was being predicated on other issues, namely investigations and the questions about the election interference in 2016,” she said.

A ‘domestic political errand’ in Ukraine

Hill said she clashed with Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, who was one of the officials working to consummate the scheme. Sondland “was being involved in a domestic political errand, and we were involved in national security policy, and the two had diverged”, she said.

“I did say to him, ‘Ambassador Sondland, Gordon, this is going to blow up’. And here we are.”

‘It was obvious what the president was pressing for’

In his testimony on Thursday, David Holmes, a state department aide in Kyiv, described a cellphone conversation at a restaurant in which he overheard Trump ask Sondland about “investigations” and heard Sondland tell Trump the Ukrainians had agreed to them.

Everyone in the embassy in Kyiv came to understand that Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and Trump were pressing Ukraine to announce an investigation related to the Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden, Holmes said: “It was obvious what the president was pressing for.”

Hill warns Republicans not to spread Russian propaganda

Hill warned Republicans loyal to Trump to stop peddling Russian propaganda in the form of conspiracy theories that Ukraine tampered in the 2016 presidential election. “I would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests,” she said.

Nevertheless the top Republican on the committee, Devin Nunes, and others pursued lines of questioning to advance various strands of the theory.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Devin Nunes questions Fiona Hill during the House hearing on the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump. Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

What comes next

After five days and 12 public witnesses, the public phase of impeachment hearings appeared to draw to a close. In concluding remarks, Nunes called the hearings “a show trial”.

But Adam Schiff, the House intelligence committee chair, said that the mountain of witness testimony added up to a compelling and urgent case that “Trump put his personal and political interest above the United States”.