Trump didn’t pressure Zelensky, Prystaiko says

U.S. President Trump didn’t pressure Ukrainian
President Zelensky during the July 25 telephone call that is reportedly the
subject of a whistleblower complaint filed by a U.S. intelligence officer,
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said in an interview with the
hromadske.ua news site published on Sept 23. “I think that there wasn’t any
pressure,” he said. “Discussions are different. Leaders have the right to
discuss all existing problems. This discussion was long, friendly and involved
many issues.” The current conflict over the phone call is the result of being
“incompletely informed,” he said, adding the Zelensky administration is not
interested in helping either of the U.S. political parties.

Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said on Sept.
23 that he can’t say for certain that the U.S. president didn’t threaten
Ukraine military aid when he spoke to Ukrainian President Zelensky about an
investigation into former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter. In an
interview with the Fox Business news channel, Giuliani first said reports that
Trump threatened to cut aid was “a false story,” but then backtracked and said,
“I can’t tell you if it’s 100 percent.” Trump asked Zelensky eight times during
the July 25 phone call to cooperate with Giuliani in investigating whether Joe
Biden protected his son from a probe of his involvement in the Burisma natural
gas company, the wsj.com news site reported on Sept. 21, citing anonymous
sources familiar with the matter.

Top Ukrainian officials, including President Zelensky,
were worried about the consequences of ignoring Giuliani’s demands on
investigating the Bidens, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy tweeted on Sept. 19. Murphy
said he met with Zelensky and members of his administration during his early
September visit to Ukraine, during which they discussed “the surprise cut off
of aid and the inappropriate demands the Trump campaign was making of him.” He
added, “Zelensky did not explicitly connect the two in our meeting, but he was
very concerned about the cut off of aid, and very aware of the conversations
that Rudy Giuliani was having with his team.” Sen. Murphy began calling for
investigations of Giuliani’s demands of Zelensky in May.