The murky circumstances of Yovanovitch’s ouster lie at the heart of Democrats’ probe of Trump’s conduct toward Ukraine. The investigation is likely this week to lead the House of Representatives to impeach a president for the third time in U.S. history.

Among those being considered to replace Yovanovitch is retired Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, a 40-year Army veteran who now serves as director of the Pentagon-affiliated George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany, according to several people familiar with the search. The president likes Dayton, a Senate aide said, and the former general is "willing to take on the job."

U.S. policy toward Ukraine has been in turmoil following revelations about the president’s efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate his political foes.

Several key U.S. diplomats testified in the impeachment inquiry against Trump in damaging ways, making it hard for them to be seen as speaking on the president’s behalf.

One, William Taylor, is the top diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv; another, Gordon Sondland, is Trump’s ambassador to the European Union. A third diplomat is gone altogether: Kurt Volker, the unpaid special envoy for Ukraine negotiations, quit as the scandal broke.

Officials in Kyiv and Washington are hoping a new ambassador can stabilize a relationship that remains fragile and rife for exploitation by a hostile Kremlin.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill on Nov. 15. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

“There is such a personnel void now on these issues that I do think the nomination of an ambassador, especially one that is political but acceptable to the foreign policy establishment and bureaucracy at the State Department, would be very helpful,” said Daniel Vajdich, a former top Senate aide who specializes in Ukraine.

Ukraine has just selected a new ambassador to the U.S., according to Ukrainian media reports and a person familiar with the appointment. Volodymyr Yelchenko, who currently serves as Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations, is set to take over from Valeriy Chaly, who wrote an op-ed criticizing Trump’s position on Crimea during the election.

The Trump administration official acknowledged the challenges of pursuing a “normal” Ukraine policy “because of the huge political attention and spotlight” due to impeachment. But the official stressed that the two sides have common interests.

“They see absolutely eye-to-eye with the president on Nord Stream,” the official said, referring to the controversial Russia to Europe Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project that both Kyiv and Washington oppose.

The Ukrainians also are “genuinely appreciative of the lethal aid” the U.S. has provided them in their war with Russia, this official said. Trump is pleased that Zelensky met recently with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in an effort to resolve the conflict, the official added.

If anything, though, the Democrats’ impeachment drive seems to be deepening Trump’s own animus toward Ukraine. It also has barely dented the president’s appetite for material he can wield against his domestic rivals.

And, even as Zelensky and Putin met last week in Paris, making only limited progress, Trump welcomed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the Oval Office in an unusual departure from standard diplomatic protocol.

Trump’s meeting with Lavrov came as the president’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, returned from an amateur sleuthing trip to Kyiv, touting dubious if not outright fantastical claims about Joe Biden, the president’s leading 2020 rival.

Trump also failed to invite Zelensky to the White House ahead of the Paris talks, disappointing Ukrainian officials and their U.S. allies, who had been hoping for an invitation—or even just an encouraging tweet, according to several sources—as a show of support against Moscow.

It’s difficult to extract solid answers from the administration as to who, exactly, is currently in charge of U.S. policy toward Ukraine.

Both Taylor, who remains the top U.S. diplomat in Kyiv; and Sondland, who temporarily assumed an outsized role on Ukraine policy, have found themselves marginalized after their congressional testimony, two people familiar with the issue said.

Trump has directly criticized a top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, for his testimony before House lawmakers. And there’s no sign that the administration is looking to replace Volker, who not only gave up the envoy job but also lost a lucrative position as head of the McCain Institute.

The Trump administration official who spoke to POLITICO noted that Pompeo has become more deeply involved in Ukraine policy, thus his expected January visit to the country.

The State Department did not reply to requests for comment Monday.

Another plausible candidate to replace Yovanovitch is Philip Reeker, the acting assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs. Reeker is a career Foreign Service officer who also testified in late October.

In a little-noticed moment from his closed-door deposition to House investigators on Oct. 26, Reeker testified that the search for a new ambassador was “ongoing.”

“I believe, having talked to the Counselor Brechbuhl, who I think has sort have been spearheading that, they are narrowing down on names,” Reeker said when asked about the status of the search. Ulrich Brechbuhl, a former West Point classmate of Pompeo’s, is one of the secretary of State’s top aides and closest confidants.

“I know he and I had one meeting where he floated a number of names that had emerged in their discussion, some of whom I was -- some of the names I was familiar with,” Reeker said. Asked whether it wouldn’t be surprising if a name emerged “in the next several months,” Reeker replied: “I think that's fair to say, yes.”

Reeker also revealed that he was originally approached to replace Yovanovitch in the winter of 2018, but that it ultimately fell through and Taylor was selected on an interim basis instead.

Dayton and the Marshall Center did not return requests for comment, but the retired Army officer is potentially a good fit. A Russian speaker, Dayton has direct experience in Kyiv, having been tapped last November by then-Defense Secretary James Mattis as a senior U.S. defense adviser to Ukraine. And he is familiar with the challenges involved in training and equipping a foreign military force. According to his online biography, his last assignment while on active duty was as U.S. security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Former State Department official Daniel Fried said Dayton is “well-regarded” and “experienced,” and would be a “sound choice” for the role if nominated.

One of Dayton’s recent projects at the Marshall Center—courses for Ukrainians on anti-corruption and defense reform that have been widely praised, according to former Pentagon official Michael Carpenter—could align with official U.S. policy goals.

Foreign policy professionals differ on whether the next ambassador should be a political appointee or a member of the career Foreign Service, as Yovanovitch was. Dayton, as a retired military officer but not a veteran diplomat, would be more like the model used in South Korea, where Trump appointed a longtime Navy admiral.

Appointing a career diplomat would send an encouraging signal to the Foreign Service in the wake of the impeachment inquiry, and a career diplomat would likely have an easier time getting through the confirmation process. But given Trump’s long-held suspicion of career government employees, an appointee chosen from the outside is more likely to have his confidence.

“A political ambassador in and of itself is not a bad thing,” said a senior Democratic Senate staffer, when asked about lawmakers’ latest thinking on the subject. “We just think the White House will have a hard time finding a Republican who doesn’t have ties to Rudy Giuliani or Parnas or Fruman.”

The Soviet-born businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman helped Giuliani dig up dirt on Biden and pushed for Yovanovitch’s early removal. Giuliani told The New Yorker that he believed he “needed Yovanovitch out of the way” because “she was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody.”