UKRAINE FIRST STOP ON POMPEO’S 5-NATION TRIP

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. Pompeo will depart Thursday on a five-nation tour of Europe and Central Asia starting with Ukraine, the State Department said Monday. Who is he?

Mike Pompeo was President Donald Trump’s first CIA director, then was chosen to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, whom Trump dismissed in March 2018. Pompeo took office the next month.

Why is he in the news?

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.

One of those witnesses, William Taylor, is the current acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, although he will leave Kyiv shortly before Pompeo’s arrival.

Taylor’s tenure could have lasted until mid-January, prompting complaints from lawmakers that his departure sends a poor message to the embassy in Kyiv and career diplomats more generally, as well as Ukraine.

A senior State Department official gave details about Pompeo’s trip on condition of anonymity under State Department rules for such briefings. Pompeo will meet with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose July 25 phone call with Trump triggered the whistleblower complaint that led to Trump’s impeachment. In that call, Trump disparaged former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and asked Zelenskiy

for “a favor,” suggesting he wanted Ukrainian authorities to investigate Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, for corruption. Trump has said the call was “perfect” and has denied doing anything wrong.

What happens next?

In his meetings, Pompeo will “reaffirm U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” as the country continues to battle Russian-backed separatists in the east, the State Department said. Pompeo also will honor Ukrainians who have died in the conflict, which intensified after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014. The senior official said Pompeo would underscore that the U.S. will never recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

BLOOMBERG Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will “reaffirm U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the State Department said.