Trump Personally Ordered to Freeze Aid to Ukraine, Said the Undersecretary of state David Hale

The U.S. Undersecretary of State emphasized that the decision to suspend assistance to Kyiv came directly from the American leader. The decision to freeze financial and military aid to Ukraine came directly from the U.S. President Donald Trump, said David Hale, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, at a closed hearing in the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress, TASS reported on November 19. It is noted that the transcript of the hearings was released on Monday, November 18, but the meeting itself took place at the beginning of the month. The diplomat testified to members of three committees of the lower house of Congress as part of the impeachment process of the U.S. President. According to Hale, Trump ordered the White House administrative and budgetary administration to freeze aid to Ukraine. He specified that on July 23, a meeting was held at the level of deputy heads of all key American departments involved in foreign policy. At this meeting, Charles Kupperman, deputy assistant to the president for national security, asked representatives of each department about the position on the aid suspension to Ukraine. “I strongly supported the resumption of assistance, and the same thing was done by representatives of all other departments with the exception of the administrative and budgetary administration of the White House,” the undersecretary said. “The administration and budget department, when asked, reported that they had been instructed by the president and Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney to freeze the aid,” Hale said. We remind that on August 29, Trump ordered to review military assistance to Ukraine. At the time of the audit, the funds were frozen. Later, the aid was unblocked to Kyiv, but in September a scandal erupted in the United States over Trump’s July telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. It became the reason for the announcement by the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress on the impeachment of Trump. Korrespondent.net