Posts tagged with "Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky"

Above, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Photo source: Newsweek)

Zelensky rules out peace talks with ‘insane’ Putin: ‘It’s a joke for him’

May 16, 2023

Russian leader Vladimir Putin is “insane,” Ukrainian President  Volodymyr Zelensky has said as he journeys around Europe to shore up support for Kyiv ahead of the country’s long-touted counteroffensive against the Kremlin, reports Newsweek.

“It’s a joke for him,” Zelensky said during a visit to Italy over the weekend, according to a Ukrainian media readout. “He does not understand what is happening. He is an insane human.”

“Russia started the war. Russia took lives. The war is on our land,” Zelensky said, in a readout of his interview with Italian media published by his office. “We have not proposed an artificial plan. We have proposed how to get out of this situation, to end the war, according to the law, respecting the UN Charter, international law, people, values.”

Zelensky here referenced his Ukrainian Peace Formula, which is a ten-point plan that outlines Kyiv’s conditions for peace. He has previously dismissed the possibility of negotiating with Putin. He said in January that he was “not interested” in meeting with the Russian president for peace talks.

There is “no point in attempts by certain countries or influential individuals to mediate between Ukraine and Russia to end the war,” according to Zelensky’s office. However, Kyiv “welcomes the proposals of third parties to help overcome the crises provoked by the war and end the war,” the presidential office said in a statement referring to Zelensky’s appearance in Italian media.

“We are a civilized state and we want peace, but a just peace. And we want fair and just sentences for the murderers,” Zelensky told Italian outlets.

Zelensky met with Italian political leaders, including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, during a visit to Rome on Saturday, May 13. Kyiv’s European allies are pledging further support ahead of a concerted push-back against Russian forces.

On Saturday, the Ukrainian leader then travelled to Berlin as Germany unveiled a substantial new military aid package destined for Kyiv. “I thank Germany for the largest military aid package since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter.

“Now is the time for us to determine the end of the war already this year. We can make the aggressor’s defeat irreversible already this year,” Zelensky told the media during a news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Zelensky then arrived in Paris, adding on social media that, “with each visit, Ukraine’s defense and offensive capabilities are expanding.”

He tweeted, “The ties with Europe are getting stronger, and the pressure on Russia is growing,” as the French government committed to sending more AMX-10 RC “light tanks.”

On Monday, Zelensky arrived in the U.K. for a surprise visit and a meeting with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

“The UK is a leader when it comes to expanding our capabilities on the ground and in the air,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter. “This cooperation will continue today.” The British government said in a press release ahead of Sunak’s meeting with Zelensky that the U.K. would provide “hundreds of air defence missiles and further unmanned aerial systems including hundreds of new long-range attack drones.”

Ukraine has been calling for increased military equipment deliveries as it prepares for its spring counteroffensive. However, Kyiv officials have declined to provide specific details on the nature of these operations.

“We are preparing very seriously,” Zelensky said in Italy. “And there will definitely be very serious steps. You will definitely see it, and Russia will definitely feel it.”

However, Zelensky said earlier this month that Ukraine would “need a bit more time” before launching this effort.

Research contact: @Newsweek

Above, President-elect Joe Biden. (Photo source Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

Biden to face test over access to sensitive information as he inherits Trump’s secret server

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December 1, 2020

President-elect Joe Biden soon will have to decide whether to share transcripts of calls to and from foreign leaders with a broad, security clearance-holding audience—or to maintain a lockdown on official transcripts of the calls and other highly sensitive information imposed by the Trump Administration over concerns they might be leaked, CNN reports.

A person close to the Biden transition team told CNN that no decisions have been made about how these sensitive materials will be handled when the President-elect takes office on January 20, and that it’s likely they will maintain the Trump Administration’s close hold on such information, at least at first, until they are settled in and Jake Sullivan, Biden’s pick for national security adviser, can assess their information security needs.

A senior US official said that the Biden team will be given access to a secret server containing sensitive information related to President Donald Trump’s more controversial conversations with foreign leaders on a need-to-know basis and the Trump Administration is prepared to share any information that they deem to be relevant to their future decision-making process.

While Biden’s team will likely aim to be more transparent, much has changed since many of his senior appointees were in government and the politically charged atmosphere in Washington on the heels of the election has some officials urging caution in the early months—to prevent leaks, and assess the needs and boundaries of sharing sensitive information.

Back-to-back leaks of controversial remarks made by Trump during calls with leaders of Mexico and Australia in the early days of the Trump White House resulted from an unusually loose record-distribution policy, several officials tell CNN, prompting them eventually to resort to the use of a secret server to store records of calls involving leaders of Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Ukraine.

When H.R. McMaster took over as Trump’s second national security adviser, a month into the presidency in February 2017, the distribution lists grew smaller, officials told CNN—although a few individuals could still access records from the National Security Council’s traditional computer portal, which handled everything except CIA operational information, one official explained.

White House officials also moved to significantly limit the number of individuals who could listen in on many of Trump’s calls, or who could access the records after those calls were concluded, the people said.

The disclosure last year of a complaint by an unidentified whistleblower revealed concerns among White House officials over all—including the President’s July 2019 discussion with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which triggered the hearings that led to Trump’s impeachment by the House of Representatives.

“The fact is too many people probably had access when Trump came into office: In some ways it was good, but in some ways it can also be bad,” one former administration official close to the transition team said. “Given the politically charged environment we’re in right now, it’s probably wise to maintain some control over it, although maybe not in the form of a secret server.”

The official said that basic details pertaining to Trump’s conversations with foreign leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, only will be shared if they are relevant to a pending policy or national security matter.

“There’s a lot to cover,” the senior US official said. “We are going to share anything that’s relevant for them to come to grips with reality when the keys are theirs. If there was something like that that’s actually of note… things on the covert side, for example, we will highlight them very quickly.”

Research contact: @CNN

Above, President Donald Trump. (Photo source: Express Co. UK)

Trump retweets article that ‘outs’ impeachment whistleblower

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December 30, 2019

On December 26, Donald Trump retweeted an article that had appeared in the Washington Examiner earlier this month—allegedly revealing the name of “the whistleblower” who had filed a complaint about the president’s dealings with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The whistleblower made his or her report after a July 25 phone call between the U.S. and Ukraine leaders, during which Trump purportedly extorted Zelensky—withholding nearly $400 million in congressionally approved military aid and a White House meeting until Zelensky agreed to publicly announce an investigation into the 2016 election; as well as into dealings in Ukraine by Democratic candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

According to a report by Mediaite, the Thursday night email represented the first time that Trump had exposed the name of the whistleblower in any manner.

Trump apparently was “goaded” into retweeting the Washington Examiner story after the whistleblower’s attorney, Mark Zaid, slammed Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) for her attacks on the informant and called on her to step down from the Senate whistleblower caucus.

When the president’s reelection team, known as the Trump War Room, jumped in to defend Blackburn, Trump also took to Twitter.

Now, there is bound to blowback for Trump. Several conservative outlets to date have identified the person alleged to be the whistleblower. No major news organization has yet reported the name.

Angry tweets from Americans followed the president’s revelation—many asking for another article of impeachment to be drafted for his “outing” of the whistleblower.

Research contact: @Mediaite

Above, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. (Photo source: Ring of Fire Radio)

Rudy to the rescue? Giuliani’s current Ukraine jaunt freaks out Trump’s team—and he doesn’t care

December 9, 2019

Forget Carmen Sandiego. Where in the world is Rudy Giuliani?  The president’s personal attorney’s decision to travel to multiple European countries last week—during the height of an impeachment probe involving his client—was so out of left field that senior administration officials and national security brass began tracking his movements in an effort to get a read on his objectives abroad, The Daily Beast reports.

Indeed, officials in the West Wing and numerous Trump associates learned about Giuliani’s latest foreign escapade, which included a stop in Ukraine, by reading the news, the news outlet said.

Many of them expressed exasperation at the thought of Giuliani—himself reportedly in the crosshairs of federal investigators—continuing to cause headaches for the White House. Others feared he would cause tangible damage to U.S. foreign policy.

 “I do not see why [any] lawyer would see this as serving the best interests of their client,” a senior White House official told The Daily Beast. “Especially now.”

Senior U.S. officials in the State Department and on the national security team were concerned that Giuliani was speaking with politicians in both Budapest and Kiev who have interests in domestic American politics.

According to five Daily Beast sources with knowledge of the situation, there is renewed fear that the president’s lawyer is still shopping for dirt about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter as well as speaking with foreign officials who, against all evidence, have promoted the idea that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 presidential election. In fact, there are rumors that he is taping a documentary.

The concerns about Giuliani’s trip to Kiev were so pronounced that they reached officials close to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, who were advised by Americans and politicians in Ukraine not to meet with Giuliani when he was in town, according to an individual familiar with those conversations.

The president’s attorney, who has been defiant in the face of criticism for his prior efforts to target the Bidens, was similarly unmoved by the idea that his current expedition was both unseemly and unwise, the news outlet said.

“I would hope they have more important things to do than intrude on the work being done by a lawyer defending his client against another set of false and contrived charges,” Giuliani told The Daily Beast last Wednesday, while still overseas.

Research contact: @thedailybeast

Above, House Speaker participate in a CNN Town Hall on December 5. (Photo source: CNN)

Pelosi to participate in CNN Town Hall as House weighs impeachment

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November 25, 2019

When Nancy Pelosi speaks, the American people and their president listen.  The House Speaker is widely recognized as one of the strongest and smartest leaders inside the Beltway—and as the savvy architect of the current impeachment inquiry.

Now CNN has announced, Pelosi will participate in a town hall broadcast from Washington, D.C., moderated by Jake Tapper at 9 p.m. (ET) on December 5. As part of the CNN format, the House Speaker will take questions directly from a cross-section of voters.

According to the cable news network’s publicity for the event, “Pelosi has been critical of Trump’s presidency — from his policy initiatives to his personal conduct as commander-in-chief. Earlier this week, the Speaker told CBS that she warned Trump to refrain from intimidating the “whistleblower”—whose complaint about the President’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky prompted the impeachment inquiry.”

While impeachment proceedings will dominate the headlines in December, Congress will be facing a deadline on funding for the federal government, and mounting pressure to pass a massive trade deal; and to approve legislation to lower the costs of prescription drugs.

The town hall will air exclusively on CNN, CNN International, CNN en Español, CNN.com’s homepage, across mobile devices via CNN’s apps for iOS and Android, via CNNgo apps for Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Chromecast and Android TV, SiriusXM Channels 116, 454, 795 and the Westwood One Radio Network.

Research contact: @CNN

Above, Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman. (Photo source: 100percentfedup.com)

Lt. Colonel Vindman testifies: ‘I did this out of a sense of duty’

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November 20, 2019

Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman—the principal White House adviser on Ukraine to the national security staff and the to the president—said in his opening statement in the impeachment inquiry on November 19 that he “was concerned” as he personally listened to President Donald Trump phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25.

As he sat in the Situation Room along with White House colleagues and heard firsthand the conversation between the two leaders, Vindman told the House Intelligence Committee, “…what I heard was improper.”

He clarified, “It is improper for the President of the United States to demand a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen and political opponent. It was also clear that, if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the 2016 election, the Bidens, and Burisma, it would be interpreted as a partisan play. This would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing bipartisan support; undermine U.S. national security; and advance Russia’s strategic objectives in the region.”

He said he never expected to testify about the president’s words and actions, but he did so out of a “sense of duty.”

Indeed, according to a report by NBC News—which obtained a copy of the opening statement and posted it—Vindman’s account is significant because Republicans have attempted to paint previous witnesses as unreliable given their second- or third-hand knowledge about the pressure campaign. Vindman said that he witnessed EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland ask Ukrainian officials to open the investigation in order to get the aid — a meeting then-national security adviser John Bolton cut short. He also said that the July 25 call was “inappropriate” and he reported his concerns immediately

What’s more, he noted, he continued to support the foreign policy objectives of the administration, even after he reported his concerns—both on July 10 about Ambassador Sondland’s message detailing what was expected from Ukraine in return for the nearly $400 million in military aid—and on July 25 about the president’s dialog with Zelensky.

“When I reported my concerns,” Lt. Colonel Vindman said, “my only thought was to act property and to carry out duty. Following each of my reports [to National Security Council attorney John Eisenberg, who placed the transcript of the phone call on a classified server]… I immediately returned to work to advance the President’s and our country’s foreign policy objectives. I focused on what I have done throughout my career, promoting America’s national security interests.”

NBC News reported that Vindman —whose loyalty to the United States has come under attack from some in conservative media—excoriated the “reprehensible” and “cowardly” attacks on career foreign service officers and others who have appeared or were expected to do so, saying they do this work out of patriotism and not partisanship.

In a powerful close, Vindman thanked his father for deciding to emigrate to America from Ukraine, saying his testimony was proof it was the right decision. “Do not worry, I will be fine for telling the truth,” he said looking into the camera directly at his dad.

Research contact: @NBCNews

Above, President Donald Trump. (Photo source: www.tabletmag.com)

Repudiate or remove? 70% of Americans say Trump’s demands to Ukraine were ‘wrong’

November 19, 2019

A majority of Americans think they have Donald Trump’s number—and that’s not good news for the president. An overwhelming 70% of Americans believe that he was “wrong” to ask a foreign leader to investigate his political rival, an ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted November 16-17 has found.

A slim majority of Americans,(51%) believe Trump’s actions were both wrong and he should be impeached and removed from office. But only 21% of Americans say they are following the hearings very closely.

In addition to the 51%, another 19% think that Trump’s actions were wrong, but that, at worst, he should either be impeached by the House and not removed from office. The survey also finds that 25% of Americans think that Trump did nothing wrong.

Still,about one-third (32%) say they made up their minds about impeaching the president before the news broke about Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in which Trump urged his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

The poll asked Americans how closely they were following the first week of public impeachment hearings in the House, their assessments of Trump’s actions; and whether those actions warranted impeachment and removal from office. The survey also asked Americans when they decided on the matter.

ABC News notes that House Democrats are investigating whether the administration withheld nearly $400 million in aid and promised a White House summit between the two leaders in exchange for an investigation into the president’s political rival, Biden, and his son, for his place on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Overall, the poll found, 58% of Americans say they are following the hearings very closely or somewhat closely (21% and 37%, respectively); and 21% say they made up their minds about impeachment after the first week of public hearings. Among those who said this, 60% think that Trump should be impeached and removed from office.

Of those following the House impeachment hearings very closely, 67% think Trump’s actions were wrong and he should be impeached and removed from office.

Among Democrats, 41% say they made up their minds about impeachment before Trump’s actions related to Ukraine became public. And 41% of those who support Trump’s impeachment and removal from office say they made up their minds before the matter came to light.

The unfolding political drama between congressional Democrats and the White House reveals a polarized populace, with Democrats more united in their belief that Trump should be impeached and convicted than Republicans are in their belief that the president has committed no wrongdoing: 85% and 65%, respectively.

Research contact: @ABCNews

Above, Nikki Haley (left) with President Donald Trump. (Photo source: Independent Mail UK)

Is Nikki Haley positioning herself to replace Mike Pence on Trump’s 2020 ticket?

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November 13, 2019

She is one of the few Trump Administration headliners who has departed while still on good terms with the president. And on her current book tour, Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations, has characterized the POTUS as “truthful.”

Now, political pundits are asking, does Haley have an agenda? And more specifically, is she angling to replace Mike Pence on the 2020 GOP ticket as vice president?

Less than three months ago, Yahoo News pointed out on November 12, Haley shut down speculation that she was seeking to replace VP Mike Pence.

“Enough of the false rumors,” she tweeted on August 21. “Vice President Pence has been a dear friend of mine for years. He has been a loyal and trustworthy VP to the President. He has my complete support.”

But the speculation has resumed during Haley’s promotional tour for her new book, which some observers—including the hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough—believe is doubling as an audition for the role of Trump’s running mate.

Haley’s book, entitled With All Due Respect: Defending America With Grit and Grace, which was released on Tuesday, November 12, is respectful toward Trump and dismissive of some of his other cabinet members, including former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and ex-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whom she says tried to recruit her to “save the country” by undermining Trump, Yahoo reports.

She writes, “Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren’t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country. ‘We are doing the best we can do to save the country,’ they said. We need you to work with us and help us do it.”

Both Kelly and Tillerson have denied that they were on a mission to undermine Trump. (Kelly told The Washington Post that if providing the president “with the best and most open, legal and ethical staffing advice … is ‘working against Trump,’ then guilty as charged.”)

Haley says she refused to go along with the idea. “Go tell the president what your differences are, and quit if you don’t like what he’s doing,” Haley described her response to CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell.  “But to undermine a president is really a very dangerous thing.”

In an interview with NBC’s “Today” show, the former South Carolina governor said she told Trump about Kelly and Tillerson’s back-door approach.

In the same interview, Yahoo reports, Haley defended Trump’s requests for Ukraine to investigate his political rivals in exchange for military aid — the basis of the House Democrats’ ongoing impeachment inquiry.

While she refused to say whether she agreed with Trump that his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was “perfect,” Haley echoed a White House talking point that there was no pressure put on Zelensky.

Research contact: @YahooNews

Envoy to Ukraine William Taylor. (Photo source: YouTube screen grab)

Taylor ties Trump directly to Ukraine quid pro quo

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October 24, 2019

It was a shakedown, pure and simple. There were audible gasps in the room on October 22, when the top U.S. envoy to Ukraine told House impeachment investigators that President Donald Trump sought to withhold $400 million in critical military aid to Ukraine—and to refuse a White House meeting with the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky—unless he pursued politically motivated investigations into Trump’s rivals.

The diplomat, William Taylor, painted a damaging portrait of events that directly tied Trump to a quid pro quo with Ukraine, according to his prepared remarks obtained by Politico and his responses to questions as described by sources in the room for the closed-door testimony.

Indeed, the 50-year veteran of government service “systematically dismantled Trump’s repeated denials that he sought to leverage American military and diplomatic might to coerce an ally into a coordinated campaign to damage his potential 2020 rival,” Politico reported.

 Trump himself and his congressional allies did not attempt on Tuesday to dispute the substance of Taylor’s claims, which were based on copious notes. Instead, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham attacked Taylor personally, saying he was part of a band of “radical unelected bureaucrats waging war on the Constitution.”

In his opening statement, Taylor said Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, told him that “everything” — including military assistance to Ukraine and a meeting between Trump and the Ukrainian leader — was contingent on the Ukrainians publicly announcing investigations into Trump’s political opponents. He told impeachment investigators that a White House budget official said on a secure phone call in July that Trump had personally directed that the military aid be withheld.

“It is a rancorous story about whistle-blowers, Mr. Giuliani, side channels, quid pro quos, corruption and interference in elections,” Taylor said according to Politico, referring to Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who was deeply involved in the shadow effort.

Taylor also testified that Sondland said Trump personally told him that he wanted Ukraine to “state publicly” that it would open such probes, before the U.S. would release the aid, which is viewed as critical for combating Russia’s aggression in the region.

“The body language of the people hearing it was, ‘holy s—’ — seriously,” Representative Harley Rouda (D-California), a member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, told Politico in reference to Taylor’s opening statement.

Representative Stephen Lynch (D-Massachusetts), a senior member of the Oversight panel, characterized the testimony as a “sea change” that “could accelerate” the impeachment inquiry..

Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the president’s lead defender in the room, was tight-lipped as he emerged from the closed-door deposition for a lunch break. He praised what he described as GOP lawyers’ effective questioning of Taylor but declined to say whether it yielded exculpatory information.

Research contact: @politico

Photo source: Spiegel.de

White House opens internal review of Ukraine call, as insiders run for cover

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October 17, 2019

The cat is investigating who ate the canary. President Donald Trump has for weeks sought to unmask the whistle-blower who revealed his Ukraine dealings. Now, administration attorneys have begun a “fact-finding review” on the actions leading up to the current impeachment inquiry— and some White House denizens fear that it is really a hunt for a scapegoat, according to sources tapped by The New York Times.

Specifically, the news outlet reports, the legal investigators are seeking to understand White House officials’ actions around Trump’s July 25 call with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, which is central to the whistle-blower’s allegation that the POTUS abused his power.

The lawyers are particularly interested in why one of their colleagues, National Security Council Legal Advisor John A. Eisenberg, placed a rough transcript of the call in a computer system typically reserved for the country’s most closely guarded secrets. The president later directed that a reconstructed transcript be released amid intensifying scrutiny from House Democrats.

According to the Times, “The review shows how quickly the impeachment inquiry escalated tensions in a West Wing already divided over the publication of the transcript, and it appears to be the latest example of administration officials rushing to protect themselves in the Ukraine scandal.”

For his own part, Eisenberg has reacted angrily to suggestions that he is under scrutiny, according to two people told of his response. He has said he limited access to the transcript over concerns about leaks, according to a person familiar with his actions. He declined through a National Security Council spokesman to comment.

It was not clear who sought the review. The Acting White House Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, is said to have encouraged it, and his aides are helping the White House Counsel’s Office, led by Pat Cipollone, sources said. Aides in the two offices have otherwise been at odds since the transcript was released, according to administration officials.

The existence of the review could threaten the president’s narrative that his call with Zelensky was “perfect.” Instead, the review underscores the evidence that he bent foreign policy to his personal advantage by pressing Zelensky to open investigations that could damage his political opponents.

Research contact: @nytimes