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What did the Yovanovitch transcripts reveal about Kyiv?
Summary
A look back at the release of the first two impeachment inquiry transcripts, and two other Ukraine-related reports from the preceding days.
What did Washington learn about its Ukraine policy when the first impeachment transcripts became public? On 4 November 2019, three U.S. House committees released the transcripts of the first two closed-door depositions in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump: those of former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and former Ambassador to Brazil Michael McKinley.
The committees involved were the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Two diplomats, two accounts
Yovanovitch said she felt threatened by President Trump. McKinley described a different concern. He said he resigned because of what he saw as the engagement of diplomatic missions in procuring negative political information for domestic purposes. He said he had never observed the State Department take part in such activity during his career, with the exception of the Trump administration.
For a Ukrainian audience, the significance lay in where the testimony came from: a former envoy to Kyiv was at the centre of a U.S. political process, with her account now on the public record.
Other Ukrainian news from the days before
The week was not only about Washington. On 30 October 2019, the Verkhovna Rada renamed the city of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi as Pereiaslav.
On 29 October 2019, Ukraine's National Bureau of Air Accidents Investigation concluded its inquiry into South Airlines Flight 8971. It stated that the accident was caused by the pilot's excessive speed reductions as he tried to land in weather conditions beyond his qualifications. The aircraft, an Antonov An-24, had crashed on landing at Donetsk International Airport on 13 February 2013, killing 5 of the 52 people on board.
Taken together, these reports showed Ukraine appearing in several registers at once: in the foreign testimony of diplomats, in the legislature's decisions on place names, and in the closing of a long-open accident inquiry.
