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What the Giuliani raid meant for Ukraine ties
Summary
A look back at 4 May 2021, when the aftermath of a federal raid and a new Central Asian ceasefire framed the regional news picture.
What was the political backdrop on 4 May 2021 for Ukraine and its neighbours? Two recent developments stood out in the days before that date: a US federal raid linked to Ukraine, and a ceasefire between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
On 28 April 2021, federal investigators raided the home of Rudy Giuliani, the former personal lawyer of former President Donald Trump. The suspicion was illegal lobbying of the federal government on behalf of Ukrainian officials. The raid revived attention on the 2019 Trump–Ukraine scandal, which arose from Trump's attempts to press Ukraine into investigating his political rival Joe Biden. Giuliani was among the surrogates Trump enlisted in that effort, according to later accounts of the affair.
That scandal also involved Trump blocking a congressionally mandated $400 million military aid package, in an effort to obtain cooperation from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A phone call between Trump and Zelenskyy on 25 July 2019 was the culmination of contacts between the White House and Kyiv.
A ceasefire on the border
Further east, on 1 May 2021, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan agreed a new ceasefire after border clashes. The deal included withdrawing troops from the border. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged both countries to honour the agreement.
The two stories were unrelated in substance, but both were part of the news that preceded 4 May 2021: one about the long reach of a Ukraine-related US political affair, the other about an effort to calm a border dispute in the wider post-Soviet region.
