Just participated in a program on Moscow's @EchoMskRu radio station with Mustafa Nayyem (@mefimus) who was once Ukraine's preeminent investigative journalist. He launched Ukraine's 2014 Revolution of Dignity and went on to serve in the Ukrainian parliament. Some thoughts. 1/
Nayyem said that the immediate effect of the impeachment inquiry has been to blow up the one channel of communication Kyiv had with Washington when Kurt Volker resigned and was not replaced. This is especially painful as Ukraine is in the middle of a war. 2/
Nayyem also said that he and others had very frequent contact with Marie Yovanovitch, whom he called "a very open person." Rumors were circulating in Kyiv for months before she was recalled, but people were still "in shock" when it happened. 3/
The idea that prosecutor general Yury Lutsenko was trying to fight corruption Nayyem characterized as "phantasmagorical." 4/
Regarding the July 25 phone call and President Trump's request that Zelenskiy investigate the Bidens, Nayyem said that given the power disparity in the Washington-Kyiv relationship, "A request from such a person is pressure." /end
