KYIV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's president bristled at the release of his comments from a private conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump, which caused him some embarrassment at home.
A nonverbatim memorandum of Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy released Wednesday shows that Trump pressed Ukraine to "look into" his Democratic political rival Joe Biden. The July 25 call is now at the center of a U.S. impeachment investigation.
"I think such things, such conversations between heads of independent states, they shouldn't be published," Zelenskiy told reporters at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. He didn't indicate whether the White House warned him that his comments would be released.
During the conversation, Zelenskiy appears to make an effort to stay in Trump's good graces, telling him at least twice that he is "absolutely right" and assuring Trump they are "great friends."
But in speaking to reporters he said "no one can pressure me." He sought to play down the situation involving Biden and his son's activities in Ukraine, calling it just one of "many cases that I talk about with leaders of other countries."
Before the White House released the memo, Trump tweeted that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had received permission from the Ukrainian government to do so.
Ukrainian legal expert Roman Marchenko said if the Ukrainian government didn't give its approval, the release could have violated constitutional protections of privacy in correspondence and phone calls.
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The Ukrainian prosecutor general's office, the office of former President Petro Poroshenko and other Ukrainian government officials wouldn't comment on the memo or Biden on Thursday.
While the memorandum was a bombshell for U.S. politics, it didn't dominate the media landscape or daily conversation in Ukraine, where many are disillusioned with politics, corruption and Ukraine's struggling economy.
Taras Semenyuk, political expert at the KyivStratPro consulting company, said the assumption that investigations can be ordered from on high "is a result of the weakness of our institutions."
"The situation is very unpleasant for Ukraine. Ukraine loses its reputation," he said.
Trump has sought to implicate Biden and his son in the kind of corruption that has long plagued Ukraine. Hunter Biden served on a Ukrainian gas company's board at the same time his father as vice president was leading the Obama administration's diplomatic dealings with Kyiv. Though the timing raised concerns among anti-corruption advocates, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either the former vice president or his son.
Zelenskiy tried to smooth over tensions with Germany and France after the memo revealed critical comments about German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.
"I am grateful for any assistance to Ukraine from our European leaders, from Ms. Merkel, from Mr. Macron, and from others," he said.
Merkel's office refused to comment on Trump's remarks in the memo that the German leader "talks Ukraine, but she doesn't do anything." Germany's Foreign Ministry provided figures disputing Trump's account, saying that since 2014, German direct support to Ukraine amounted to $1.3 billion, in addition to another $218 million through European Union support.
Information for this article was contributed by Angela Charlton and Dave Rising of The Associated Press.
A Section on 09/27/2019