Pompeo Denies U.S. Attempts to Put Pressure on Ukraine

The U.S. Secretary of State also noted that “private citizens often are part of executing American foreign policy”. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo never saw evidence that Washington was trying to get any action from Kyiv in exchange for financial and military aid. Answering a question in an interview with ABC news about whether the U.S. administration was guided by this approach, Pompeo replied: “I have sawthat w in the decision-making processthat I was a part of, the decision surrounding whether there should be Department of Defense assistance, as well as some State Department assistance, provided to push back against Russia.” “The conversation was always around, what were the strategic implications, would that money gets to the right place, or would there be corruption in Ukraine, and the money wouldn’t flow to the mission that it was intended for, how do we protect that? Is it appropriate for us to provide defensive weapons systems?” he said. The Secretary of State was also asked whether Rudy Giuliani, thepersonal lawyer of US president Donald Trump, reported to him about his activities in Ukraine. “I do not talk about internal deliberations inside the administration,” answered Pompeo. He also recalled that “often are part of executing American foreign policy.” Pompeo confirmed that Giuliani passed on to Washington a dossier of materials collected from Ukraine. “That’s true, I received a set of materials.It was in a sealed envelope.I passed it on to the appropriate persons inside the State Department for their review. In ever reviewed them,” said the Secretary of State. In September, a major scandal broke out in the United States over a telephone conversation between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, which ultimately led to the House of Representatives announcing the impeachment proceedings against the American leader. It is alleged that Trump during the call tried to convince Zelensky to begin an investigation into the activities of Hunter Biden, the son of Joseph Biden,in Ukrainein exchange for providing financial and military assistance to Kyiv. Joseph Biden is now Trump's most likely Democratic rival in the upcoming November 2020 presidential election. Korrespondent