Home › Security › What Taylor's testimony meant for Kyiv's security
What Taylor's testimony meant for Kyiv's security
Summary
A look back at testimony given to Congress on 22 October 2019 that tied US military aid for Ukraine to demands for investigations.
What did Washington's top envoy in Kyiv tell Congress, and why did it matter for Ukraine's security? On 22 October 2019, the day before the date covered here, 23 October 2019, Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William B. Taylor Jr. testified in the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump.
Taylor testified that he had been told President Donald Trump would withhold military aid to Ukraine until the country publicly declared that investigations would be launched. One concerned Burisma Holdings, a company that had hired Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden. The other concerned Ukraine's alleged involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. According to the testimony, the purpose was to help Trump's reelection chances.
The security stakes
The testimony placed military assistance at the centre of the dispute. As later described, the package at issue was a congressionally mandated $400 million in military aid, which Trump blocked. The scandal also grew out of efforts to press Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, and led to a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 25 July 2019.
For Ukraine, the testimony meant that support tied to its defence was being described as conditional on political announcements, not only on security needs.
