Page:Impeachment of Donald J. Trump, President of the United States — Report of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives.pdf/247

 for themselves and shed light on President Trump's mindset when interacting with President Zelensky in 2019.

In August 2016, less than three months before the election, Valeriy Chaly, then-Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States, authored an op-ed in the Washington-based publication The Hill criticizing candidate Trump for comments he made about Russia's occupation of Crimea. Ambassador Chaly wrote that candidate Trump's comments "have raised serious concerns in [Kyiv] and beyond Ukraine." Although President Zelensky dismissed Ambassador Chaly on July 19, 2019, the ambassador's op-ed remains on the website of the Ukrainian Embassy in the U.S. as of the date of this report.

Later that month, the Financial Times published an article asserting that Trump's candidacy led "Kyiv's wider political leadership to do something they would never have attempted before: intervene, however indirectly, in a US election." The article quoted Serhiy Leshchenko, a Ukrainian Member of Parliament, to detail how the Ukrainian government was supporting Secretary Clinton's candidacy. The article explained:

"Though most Ukrainians are disillusioned with the country's current leadership for stalled reforms and lackluster anti-corruption efforts, Mr. Leshchenko said events of the past two years had locked Ukraine on to a pro-western course. The majority of Ukraine's politicians, he added, are "on Hillary Clinton's side.""

The Financial Times reported that during the U.S. presidential campaign, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk had warned on Facebook that candidate Trump "challenged the very values of the free world." On Twitter, Ukrainian Internal Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov called Trump a "clown" who is "an even bigger danger to the US than terrorism." In a Facebook post, Avakov called Trump "dangerous for Ukraine and the US" and said that Trump's Crimea comments were the "diagnosis of a dangerous misfit." Avakov continues to serve in President Zelensky's government.

Multiple Democrat witnesses testified that these Ukrainian actions during the 2016 election campaign likely also colored President Trump's views of President Zelensky. Ambassador Volker said: 18