Putin gloats over impeachment probe as Ukraine gets dragged through America's political mud

Deirdre Shesgreen | USA TODAY

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WASHINGTON – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky looked exasperated on Tuesday when an American reporter lobbed a question at him about the House impeachment inquiry, a far-away scandal that has jeopardized his presidency – and his country's future – as much as Donald Trump's.

“President Zelensky, is it true that you were ready to publicly announce an investigation into Burisma after your phone call with President Trump?" a CNN reporter asked Zelensky, referring to the Ukrainian energy company that hired former Vice President Joe Biden's son to serve on its board.

During that now-famous July 25 phone call, Trump asked Zelensky to open a probe into Biden, a Democratic political rival, and to investigate a debunked theory about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election. The conversation sparked an explosive whistleblower complaint, now at the center of the impeachment inquiry, alleging that Trump had solicited foreign interference in the 2020 election.

Fast forward to Tuesday, when Zelensky had just emerged from a meeting with the prime minister of the Czech Republic. The two leaders were hoping to trumpet new economic and political cooperation between their two countries. Instead, the focus was on Trump, Burisma and the Bidens.

"I think everybody in Ukraine is so tired about Burisma," Zelensky responded. "We have our own country. We have our independence, we have our problems and questions. That's it."

A day later in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin was cheerful as he addressed the same issue. He said he was happy that "political battles" in the U.S. had shifted attention away from Russia's interference in the 2016 American presidential election.

“Thank God no one is accusing us of interfering in the U.S. elections anymore," Putin said at an economic forum in Moscow, according to the Associated Press. "Now they’re accusing Ukraine.”

Ukraine's tough position

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In Washington, the impeachment inquiry has indeed further polarized an already bitterly divided Congress. But lawmakers across the political spectrum seem to agree on at least one point: it has put Ukraine – a strategic U.S. ally at war with Russia – in a horrible position.

"What we've done to Ukraine is absolutely devastating and debilitating," said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has been deeply involved in U.S.-Ukraine policy.

He and other Democrats blame Trump for trying to take advantage of a vulnerable U.S. ally that has already lost nearly 14,000 lives in its war against Russia. Zelensky, a 41-year-old former TV star, was elected in part on a pledge to help solve that deadly conflict.

After taking office in May, Zelensky needed an immediate, strong – and very public – show of support from Trump in that endeavor, Murphy and others say.

Instead, Trump denied Zelensky a coveted White House meeting, allegedly as leverage to get Zelensky to open the politically motivated investigations. Trump also temporarily withheld nearly $400 million in military aid that Ukraine needed to fight Russian-backed separatists inside its borders.

"This has been an extraordinary distraction that keeps the United States and the world focused on Ukraine but in a very negative way," said Heather Conley, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan foreign policy think tank.

The impeachment inquiry has put a "question mark" around American support for Ukraine, Conley said, particularly the vital U.S. military aid that Ukraine desperately needs to defend itself against Russia. And it helps promote Putin's goals in other ways – by drawing attention to Ukraine's problems with corruption and by casting the U.S. as an unreliable ally.

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Critical moment for Zelensky

It all comes at a critical moment for Zelensky, a political neophyte who is trying to enact reforms in his country, strengthen its economy, and negotiate a resolution to the deadly conflict with Russia, which began in 2014 when Moscow annexed Crimea.

Zelensky and Putin are tentatively scheduled to meet for the first time on Dec. 9 in France, where they will try to revive a failed peace deal, signed in 2015 but never implemented. But the impeachment inquiry has weakened Zelensky ahead of that high-stakes negotiation, said Jeffrey Edmonds, an expert on Russia and Eurasia with the Center for Naval Analysis.

"He's very young. He doesn't have a lot of political experience, and he has to contend with Vladimir Putin," said Edmonds, who served as director for Russia on the National Security Council during the Obama administration.

"He wants Ukraine to be seen as an ally to the United States, not some cause of internal domestic strife" he added. "And I'm sure he doesn't appreciate the fact that the president keeps saying that Ukraine was involved in meddling the election, which is completely untrue."

Fiona Hill, Trump's former senior director for Europe and Russia on the National Security Council, warned Republicans not to parrot that Kremlin talking point in her testimony on Thursday before the House Intelligence Committee, which is leading the impeachment probe.

"This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves," Hill said.

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But it has become a central part of the GOP's defense of Trump on Capitol Hill. The president himself repeated the claim on Friday during a marathon interview with "Fox and Friends."

Inquiry's impact on Ukraine

Republicans say it's the impeachment inquiry, not Trump's Ukraine pressure campaign, that has undermined Zelensky.

"If their interest was a stronger relationship with Ukraine, they didn't accomplish it," Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., argued on NBC's "Meet the Press" last weekend. "Having this all come out into public has weakened that relationship, has exposed things that didn't need to be exposed."

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Among the details that have been exposed: a blunt conversation between Trump and Gordon Sondland, his ambassador to the European Union. According to impeachment testimony this week, Sondland told Trump that Zelensky "loves your ass" and "will do will do anything you ask him to do."

David Holmes, a U.S. diplomat stationed in Ukraine, overheard that part of a phone call, which took place on Sondland's cell phone at a restaurant in Kyiv. Holmes recounted that conversation publicly on Thursday during his testimony before the intelligence panel – prompting GOP accusations that he was needlessly embarrassing Zelensky.

"You embarrass President Zelensky by making those statements that you didn't have to make," said Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican on the committee.

Holmes said he disclosed the conversation because it provided a first-hand account of Trump asking about the willingness of Zelensky to open the investigations he wanted. And, he added, "I think it was Gordon Sondland who showed indiscretion by having the conversation over an open phone line."

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Holmes offered one bright note near the end of his testimony, describing Zelensky as a "tough guy" who would be able to deliver for the Ukrainian people, despite being in the intense spotlight of an American political drama.

"Frankly, he withstood a lot of pressure for a very long time, and he didn't give that interview," Holmes said, referring to reports that Zelensky had planned to accede to Trump's demand and publicly commit to the investigations during a CNN interview.

"This is a Ukrainian patriot," Holmes said. "I have the deepest respect for him. The Ukrainian people also have the deepest respect for him. They've chosen him to help deliver the full measure of promise of their revolution of dignity."