What did the days before 27 October 2019 reveal about Ukraine?
A look back at the Trump–Ukraine scandal testimony and charges that preceded 27 October 2019, alongside a crash report released by Ukraine.
What was the picture in the days leading up to 27 October 2019? Ukraine featured in Washington's impeachment inquiry, in a New York courtroom and in a published air-crash report.
On 22 October 2019, William B. Taylor Jr., the acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, testified before Congress. He said he had been told that President Donald Trump would withhold military aid to Ukraine until the country publicly declared that investigations would be launched. These concerned Burisma Holdings, which had hired Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, and Ukraine's alleged involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The aid, Taylor was told, was tied to Trump's reelection chances.
On 23 October 2019, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two associates of Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, pleaded not guilty at a hearing in New York City. They were charged with funnelling $350,000 in illegal donations to a pro-Trump political committee and a further $20,000 to former Republican Congressman Pete Sessions, while acting on behalf of at least one Ukrainian government official. Both had aided Giuliani in a search in Ukraine for damaging information on Trump's political opponents.
The background to the affair was a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 25 July 2019, and a congressionally mandated $400 million military aid package that Trump blocked.
On the same date, 23 October 2019, Ukraine released the final report into the Yirol Let L-410 Turbolet crash, prepared by South Sudan. It concluded that mistakes by both crew and maintenance, together with poor weather, combined to cause the disaster.
