Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky says in a new interview that he and President Trump never discussed a “quid pro quo” – though he was unhappy to have learned that US security aid had been blocked.
“I never talked to the president from the position of a quid pro quo. That’s not my thing,” Zelensky told TIME in an interview published Monday.
“I don’t want us to look like beggars. But you have to understand. We’re at war,” he continued. “If you’re our strategic partner, then you can’t go blocking anything for us. I think that’s just about fairness. It’s not about a quid pro quo. It just goes without saying.”
Allegations that President Trump abused his office are at the heart of impeachment proceedings in the House, as Democrats claim he ‘pressured’ Zelensky to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter, as well as a claim that the hacked DNC server was located within Ukraine.
Unbeknownst to Zelensky, nearly $400 million in US military aid had been paused – with Democrats claiming it was used as leverage for the Biden investigation, and the Trump administration claiming that they were concerned about how the money would be used in the notoriously corrupt country.
In 2014, Hunter Biden was hired to sit on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma – allegedly to protect its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, who was under investigation for money laundering, bribery, granting himself drilling permits while he was the Minister of Ecology, and other crimes.
Zlochevsky’s investment in Hunter Biden appeared to pay off, after Joe Biden notoriously threatened to withhold $1 billion in US aid to Ukraine if they didn’t fire the country’s head prosecutor who was leading the investigation.
In short, total malarkey.
Tackling Corruption
Zelensky told Time that he wants to improve Ukraine’s image on the world stage after people – including President Trump, keep referring to it as corrupt.
“When America says, for instance, that Ukraine is a corrupt country, that is the hardest of signals,” said Zelensky. “It might seem like an easy thing to say, that combination of words: Ukraine is a corrupt country. Just to say it and that’s it. But it doesn’t end there. Everyone hears that signal. Investments, banks, stakeholders, companies, American, European, companies that have international capital in Ukraine, it’s a signal to them that says, ‘Be careful, don’t invest.’ Or, ‘Get out of there.’”
Read the rest of the interview here.
What does “400 million dollars worth of US military aid” look like? Is it weapons produced by MIC?
Ukraine got the money within the timeline prescribed by Congress.
Was he even in on the phone call?
J/K
It’s funny when you think about it, all this outrage . Trump denies asking for something from a guy who says it didn’t happen. So what exactly is the problem? How does it not end there? There just seems to be a huge leap in logic I cannot follow.
Hey Hardfarmer.
Demoshits have no sense of logic. They only deal in a heap of lies!
Some of these foreign leaders sound a heck more intelligent and reasonable than what passes for leadership in the USA. Maybe it’s time to trade leaders instead of trade wars. (And this includes our piss poor performing congress.)
Useless statement, until CNN runs the story.
$1B aid package, $400M military package, etc. And these are just the ones we’ve heard about. No wonder there’s so many grifters tied to the country, and all the while Joe Sixpack keeps getting up on Monday, putting on his boots and going to work to fund this horseshit. End all foreign aid now. Every bit of it.
The more this shit drags on the more convinced I become this is all theatre. There’s solid video of Biden, yet republicans and media are silent. Nothing but innuendo on Trump and the gallows are being built.
Dems argue about the 2nd Amendment and that the Constitution is an obscure and outdated document, yet claim Trump and republicans are out to destroy the Constitution and they are the keepers of the light.
Fuckingnuts.