No, @thedailybeast, this is NOT new. The laptop Derkach is discussing does NOT include any evidence to support accusations against the Bidens. It was presented last month during a press conference in Kyiv. I’ve seen the info he claims it holds; nothing verifiable there.
Here’s Derkach just this week again telling me about his laptop. (And yes, even though we chat and speak in Russian he has an aide translate things into English from time to time.)
“We are heartbroken to report the death of an American member of the @USEmbassyKyiv community. Officials from U.S. Embassy Kyiv are currently working with authorities to determine the circumstances of the death,” the embassy told @BuzzFeedNews. buzzfeednews.com/article/christ…
@USEmbassyKyiv@BuzzFeedNews Where the American woman was found is less than a mile west of the US embassy. The below map will give you a sense of how close it is. (Location found on the left; embassy right of the park edge) The embassy is a heavily guarded compound with guards and police around 24/7.
American woman working for @USEmbassyKyiv was found unconscious with head wound today; she was rushed to hospital but died, Ukrainian police sources tell me. Investigation underway; unclear if accident or attack. She was wearing jogging clothes, earbuds, found near train tracks.
@USEmbassyKyiv Kyiv police have released a statement saying they're looking for a person of interest: a man with dark hair, 30-40 years old, around 6 feet tall, dressed in black shorts, dark blue sneakers and a T-shirt. kyiv.npu.gov.ua/news/novini/po…
The US Embassy declined to comment. I've reached out to the State Department for information.
For Donbas watchers: This has many in Ukraine worried. "I haven't seen a single confirmation that Russia is waging a war against Ukraine," says Vitold Fokin, newly appointed dep head of Ukraine delegation to Minsk group meant to facilitate end to the war. pravda.com.ua/news/2020/09/2…
Fokin's comments have been widely condemned in Ukraine. Russia's direct involvement in the war in the Donbas has been documented in great detail. Now a group of MPs wants Zelensky to condemn Fokin's remarks and fire him. en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/6…
Now Zelensky's own chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and Ukraine's powerful interior minister, Arsen Avakov, are calling for Fokin, who served as the country's first PM, to be fired. Avakov went so far as to call him an "idiot" and said he should be put into retirement again.
A Ukrainian military AN-26 plane reportedly crashed during a training flight in the eastern Kharkiv region. No word on victims. kh.depo.ua/rus/kh/pid-kha…
Purported video of the crash site in Kharkiv region.
General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirms the crash and says there are dead and wounded cadets involved. facebook.com/GeneralStaff.u…
Andriy Derkach, the Ukrainian MP who US Treasury labeled "active Russian agent" trying to influence the presidential election, gave another press conference in Kyiv. He was joined by former prosecutor Kostyantyn Kulyk. They leveled several (unverified) accusations against Biden.
Derkach and Kulyk also released new recordings allegedly of Biden and Poroshenko talking on Nov. 16, 2016. In one, Biden asks Poro about his convos with Trump. They discuss creating anticorruption court, reforms. There's nothing explosive let alone criminal, from what I heard.
In one of the weirder parts of the presser (and there were several), Derkach aired a video with Kulyk interrogating two unidentified men who claim knowledge of an alleged corrupt Burisma/Zlochevsky/Biden scheme that doesn't make a lot of sense.