Pompeo to make stop in Ukraine this week
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Ukraine this week, making his first trip to the country at the heart of President Donald Trump’s impeachment.
As Trump’s Senate trial on impeachment charges continues, the State Department announced that Pompeo would travel to Kyiv as part of a five-nation tour of Europe and Central Asia.
Since November, Pompeo
has twice canceled plans to visit Ukraine, most recently after the New Year when developments with Iran forced him to postpone it. Pompeo will also visit Britain, as it finalizes its divorce from the European Union, along with Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan on the trip.
Trump’s impeachment on charges of abuse of office and obstruction of Congress hinges on his policy toward Ukraine. Witnesses told House investigators that Trump wanted Ukraine to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son in return for releasing critical military aid to Ukraine.
Pompeo has sought to stay above the impeachment fray and his stop in Ukraine will likely test his ability to continue to do so while leading diplomatic efforts to boost ties between Washington and Kyiv that have been complicated.
One of the impeachment witnesses, William Taylor, was until Jan. 1 the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
Pompeo had appointed Taylor to the post over the summer to take over from Marie Yovanovitch, whose tour was cut short last May after Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani made unsubstantiated allegations against her.
Yovanovitch testified that Trump supporters had mounted a smear campaign against her.
Taylor departed Kyiv a day before Pompeo was to have arrived on his previously planned trip.