Katya Gorchinskaya is a freelance journalist based in Kiev.

KIEV — On the day the U.S. House of Representatives announced it would begin an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, Vitaly Sych, the chief editor of Ukrainian news magazine Novoye Vremya, came into work expecting a quiet day. He had a cover story, a 10-page feature, ready and proofed for the page.

By midday, however, as events unfolded across the Atlantic, it was clear he'd have to change his plans. He scrambled to put together a new cover, featuring the U.S. president. “This is a big story,” Sych remembered thinking.


Trump's travails are, after all, nearly as much a Ukrainian story as an American one — featuring as they do a call between the country's two presidents, in which Trump is accused of trying to pressure Ukraine into investigating the Democratic presidential hopeful and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.

Until the release of a White House "memorandum" on the now infamous July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, most Ukrainians hadn't paid much attention to the unfolding scandal. Politicians for the most part thought they could hunker down and wait for the storm to pass.

The details of the call brought the thunder down in Kiev.

But for many Ukrainians, this week's biggest revelation was how servile their president looked beside a leader like Trump. Zelensky, whose party won by a landslide in parliamentary elections not long before the call took place, fawningly credited Trump for inspiring his "Servant of the People" campaign strategy.

The Ukrainian comedian-turned-politician appeared to agree with everything the president said, making sure to mention he stayed at Trump Tower on a recent visit to New York and acknowledging the U.S. leader’s plane was no doubt “better” than his.

Reading the memo, Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Kyiv-based Penta Center for Political Studies, felt embarrassed about several passages — and suspects Zelenskiy did too, he said. “It will be a lesson for him what to say and not to say in the future.”

More than anything, Zelensky looked out of his depth, said Sych. “He looks like a very weak negotiator. It’s very tough for him, it’s not his level. The only thing he did was agree with Trump.”

It’s not a good image for Ukraine, particularly as Zelensky gears up for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which broke out in 2014. Zelensky’s administration has made ending the war a key goal of his administration. The first prisoner exchange in years between the two countries took place earlier this month, and many had hoped more would follow.

Now some fear Zelensky’s chances are dimming. “He looks like a whipping boy,” said Sych. “It will be tough for him to stand up for Ukraine’s interests with veterans like Putin.”

But the biggest risk for Zelensky in getting dragged into this fight is the potential damage to Ukraine-U.S. relations — a fact the Ukrainian president seemed to acknowledge during a press conference in New York with Trump the day the memo was released. “Nobody pushed me,” Zelensky told the assembled reporters.

The fear is that, with so much at stake, Washington will now avoid Ukraine like the plague, according to a senior security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The country is highly dependent on the U.S. as an ally, especially in its relations with its aggressive neighbor, Russia. Trump already held back a tranche of military aide worth $250 million in July. “We are now being played in their personal interest. We are just small change in their games,” the security official said.

The silver lining for Zelensky, however, is that the problem — for now — is not one his supporters are following closely. The goings-on across the Atlantic are "a theme for the elite, for political insiders," said Fesenko of the Penta political consultancy. “It has no impact on the everyman.”

Voters will only change their minds about Zelensky when domestic issues — such as high heating bills or a push to open up the agricultural land market to outside tenders — start to bite. The latest polls put the president’s approval rating at 71 percent. He might see a dip in the polls as post-election euphoria dies down. But, for now, his domestic position seems secure.

For Ukraine, this is politics as usual, after all.

This article was originally published by Politico Europe