Government on the record about their commitment to reform and change and fighting corruption because I believed that would be helpful in overcoming this deep skepticism that the President had about Ukraine."[1] Ambassador Volker, however, did not see the statement as a "necessary condition" for President Zelensky securing a White House meeting.[2]
Ambassador Volker explained that although the statement evolved to include specific references to "Burisma" and "2016," the goal was still to show that President Zelensky was "different." He testified:
Q. And the draft statement went through some iterations. Is that correct?
A Yeah. It was pretty quick, though. I don't know the timeline exactly. We have it. But, basically, Andrey [Yermak] sends me a text. I share it with Gordon Sondland. We have a conversation with Rudy to say: The Ukrainians are looking at this text. Rudy says: Well, if it doesn't say Burisma and if it doesn't say 2016, what does it mean? You know, it's not credible. You know, they're hiding something. And so we talked and I said: So what you're saying is just at the end of the—same statement, just insert Burisma and 2016, you think that would be more credible? And he said: Yes. So I sent that back to Andrey, conveyed the conversation with him—because he had spoken with Rudy prior to that, not me—conveyed the conversation, and Andrey said that he was not—he did not think this was a good idea, and I shared his view.
Q. You had testified from the beginning you didn't think it was a good idea to mention Burisma or 2016.
A. Correct.
Q. But then, as I understand it, you came to believe that if we're going to do the statement, maybe it's necessary to have that reference in there, correct?
A. I'd say I was in the middle. I wouldn't say I thought it was necessary to have it in there because I thought the target here is not the specific investigations. The target is getting Ukraine to be seen as credible in changing the country, fighting corruption, introducing reform, that Zelensky is the real deal. You may remember that there was a statement that Rudy Giuliani made when he canceled his visit to Ukraine in May of 2019 that President Zelensky is surrounded by enemies of the United States. And I just knew that to be
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