Kurt Volker, former US Ambassador to NATO, has resigned from his position as the U.S. State Department special envoy for Ukraine.

Volker’s name has been in the news a lot this week, especially after his name was mentioned in the whistleblower complaint in this context:

Starting in mid-May, I heard from multiple U.S. officials that they were deeply concerned by what they viewed as Mr. Giuliani’s circumvention of national security decisionmaking processes to engage with Ukrainian officials and relay messages back and forth between Kyiv and the President. These officials also told me: that State Department officials, including Ambassadors Volker and Sondland, had spoken with Mr. Giuliani in an attempt to “contain the damage” to U.S. national security; and that Ambassadors Volker and Sondland during this time period met with members of the new Ukrainian administration and, in addition to discussing policy matters, sought to help Ukrainian leaders understand and respond to the differing messages they were receiving from official U.S. channels on the one hand, and from Mr. Giuliani on the other.

Rudy Giuliani claimed that was “nonsense,” showed off texts he got from Volker, and said he should step forward to explain things.

Volker has now resigned. One remarkable aspect of this news is that it was broken by Arizona State University student paper The State Press (Volker is the executive director of the McCain Institute):

Three sources confirm to CNN that Kurt Volker has resigned from his State Department post. First broken by the State Press, Arizona State University’s school paper: https://t.co/B0LEMGCJla — Mike Warren (@MichaelRWarren) September 27, 2019

Sources confirm to CBS Volker has left his position at the State Department.

McCain Institute head Kurt Volker steps down as US diplomat – The State Press https://t.co/EC8HSSFjkg — Christina Ruffini (@EenaRuffini) September 27, 2019

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