Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo's visit to Ukraine came as the impeachment trial of President Trump appeared to near its climax
Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo on Friday sought to set aside the awkwardness of the U.S. political drama involving Ukraine by reassuring the nation that American support for its developing democracy was unwavering.
“Today I’m here with a clear message: The U.S. sees that the Ukrainian struggle for freedom for democracy and prosperity is a valiant one,” Pompeo said as he and Zelensky addressed about 100 Ukrainian and international journalists crowded into a formal reception hall in the presidential administration building in the center of the capital.
Ukrainians learned with the rest of the world early this fall that Trump had withheld $391 million in foreign aid, which Kyiv depends on to fight Moscow’s militants in the east. The aid was eventually released, but Ukraine found itself in the center of an American crisis that threatened to overshadow the country’s need for international support.
Zelensky has tried to distance himself from the American scandals. On a trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York in October, he met briefly with Trump and said at a news conference that he had not felt pressure from the U.S. president to open a corruption probe into Biden, Trump’s potential rival in the 2020 election.
The Ukrainian president won in a landslide election with 73% of the vote in April. His campaign promised to fight corruption and end the war in the east. Pompeo also met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko and Defense Minister Andriy Zahorodnyuk on Friday. He will travel to Minsk, Belarus, on Saturday before winding up his trip with stops in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan early next week.
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